Clash of the Elements Part 4 EX Story 1: Year of the Dragon
by mewmaster93
Summary: The start of Alex and Shina's journey sees them visiting everyone's favorite purple dragon right as he's in the middle of recovering the lost Dragon Eggs in the Forgotten Worlds. What seems like a simple thing to help out with leads to a rather deadly secret being revealed, and the traveling duo might be followed by an enigmatic force...
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

It goes without saying that this is a continuation of a prior story. If you wish to know the whole of Part 4 EX, then go to the Prologue story in the Mario part. If you care for Spyro content, then keep reading. Reviews and such are very, VERY welcome here too.

* * *

" _So here you are again."_

"… _Or perhaps, this is your first time? I cannot fathom when it comes to someone of your disposition."_

" _The story of Alex Whiter and Shina Aurora has begun. Are you excited to see it unfold?"_

" _Oh don't give me that smile, I can interpret it so many ways, none of them good."_

" _The true meat of this story isn't until later though, you and I know that, but…"_

" _Even so, we should pay attention. The journey of a thousand miles always begins with a single step, after all."_

" _Again you laugh. I don't know if I'm the entertainer or the entertained sometimes. But enough stalling, you have your part to play in this tale, old friend. For now though…"_

" _Our story begins…in the land of Dragons."_

 **CLASH OF THE ELEMENTS PART 4 EX STORY 1:**

 **YEAR OF THE DRAGON**

 **Chapter 1: Irregularity in the Dragon Realms**

A sphere of pure air moves rapidly through the cold depths of space, carrying within it two people journeying to find the same thing, an incredible stone known only as the "Cosmos Drive". While they are searching for the same thing, their reasons for helping one another are unique. Guiding the air sphere was the young Elemental Overlord Alex Whiter, a boy wearing a normal red shirt and blue jeans, having a generic brown hairstyle and blue eyes.

He glances back, looking at the girl he travels with named Shina Aurora as she's currently sitting and chomping down on a juicy pomegranate in her right hand, with a saggy banana peel in the other one. Even as her cheeks puff from all the food in her mouth, any juice that leaks through her lips doesn't drip down onto her blue shirt or beige pants, which is pretty incredible considering her long legs and developed chest. But it was the smile and gentle hums she made that Alex paid the most attention to as she ate.

"I see you're enjoying yourself. Want anything else?" Alex asked while raising his right hand up. Devoid of the ability to speak, Shina blinked twice and then shook her head, giving her enough time to swallow and then properly reply.

"I'm good, thanks! I've never had some of these fruits before!" She then glanced down at the pomegranate rind still in her hand and her green eyes glistened.

"How come?"

"It's too cold to support gardens in Sancturia. Someone else brings fruits and stuff to our stores…I think?" Shina glances around aloofly for a little while thinking that over, though Alex just droops his mouth open a little and lets out a puzzled groan before shaking his head and facing forward. Shina stopped thinking for a moment to focus on Alex, curiosity filling those bright eyes of hers.

"You haven't eaten since we left. I heard you can only survive for thirty days without food, soooo…"

"My body can sustain itself off elemental energy. I'll be fine for a few months thanks to what I got on Plit." Alex gave his answer rather dryly as he tapped his right fingers atop his crossed arms and closed his eyes. Shina took the time to rise to her feet, brushing her long blonde hair away from the front of her face before she slowly approached Alex with a humored smile on her face.

"So you're like a plant, an element absorbing plant!"

"…If that's your comparison, then sure, I'm a plant." Alex sarcastically replied while feeling Shina's movements and wondering what she's up to. Nothing, however, could've prepared him for her to casually lean forward and rest part of her arms on his shoulders, raising a finger up and gently feeling across the right side of his cheek. Alex grits his teeth and quivers as he leans his head away and looks Shina straight in the eyes, her lips pressed into a tiny "o" until she stops feeling his face.

"W-What are you doing?!" A flustered Alex blushes red in the cheeks as Shina chuckles and replied with a grin "I was checking for chloroplast pores in your skin!" Alex then swipes his right arm out and brushes Shina across the stomach, causing her to back off with arms held behind herself and a nonchalant look on her face as Alex clenches a fist before his chin and looks a little peeved.

"T-That's not how that works! And…and what did I tell you about physical contact?!"

"Hey look, there's some weird looking planet out there!" Shina lifted her head to look past Alex and completely ignored his outburst, causing Alex to almost call her out on it while he turned out, only to stop when much to his surprise he finds she wasn't trying to distract him. Indeed, there was a spherical planet in the distance with a rather fantastical appearance, as it had tons of floating continents spread above a clean blue sea, and there were hundreds of large clouds resting within the atmosphere.

Alex stared blankly at the planet for a while before Shina brandished a pointer finger over his right shoulder and exclaimed "We should go there for info on the Cosmos Drive! Whatcha say Alex, ya up to trying it out?" Alex looks back at Shina, and her cheeks were puffed from how big her grin was as she also tried to keep her squeals of excitement held in.

" _Can't blame her…It'll be her second time going to a whole new world. Hmph, can't say it'll be that exciting for me, but…"_ As Alex's heart beats heavily from that brief glance at Shina, he turns back around and holds his arms out before saying "It's worth a shot. Lets try not to anger any aliens though…"

"Yaaaay! Ihopethisworldhasfreakywildlifeandenvironmentsandafuturisticsociety-" As Shina clenches her fists and goes wild with expectations, Alex quickly speeds up the sphere with a big enough jolt that it makes Shina sway back and forth while swinging her arms around, though she lets out a joyous cry before she's able to get her footing back. Alex sighs at that and then guides them towards the southern part of the planet, thinking it was the best place to start.

Not long after passing through the clouds and thus the atmosphere, Alex and Shina's bodies involuntarily twitched. Alex blinked a little and then glanced back to ask "You felt that, didn't you?"

"H-Huh? Yeah I did. It was like touching someone after rubbing your shoes on the carpet…" Shina made light of the strange feeling even with the very curious look on her face, and Alex just turned back and said "Ugh, never mind, lets just be careful, we're trudging unknown territory here."

Their flight towards the planet continued as they kept their guards up, though Shina was more relaxed and nonchalant as she continued to sway back and forth while humming a tune and looking towards the violet colored sky. Alex meanwhile grimaced and wished for her to be quiet so he could concentrate. Shina then paused suddenly and let out a curious murmur, looking forward and closing her eyes with a hand raised up. She saw an aura in the distance that was as dark and purple as the sky, but upon trying to sense it she felt a cruel and cold sensation that was almost like a hand was feeling up the back of her brain.

Widening her eyes, Shina pointed in the direction of a floating island surrounded by towering and distorted looking stones while saying with a little panic in her voice "There's something going on over there! Fly that way Alex!"

"Last thing we want is to make a bad first impression on the locals by getting involved in their conflicts." Alex said while closing his eyes and being a bit blunt as he flew the sphere past the island. Shina looked back and forth at the island and Alex, clenching her fists against her chest and letting out concerned groans of increasing volume before suddenly running in front of Alex and leaning forward enough to look him straight in the eyes. His heart skipped a beat and then started going at a rapid pace as she smiled at him and asked "It wouldn't hurt to take a detour to check, right? We could find info on the Cosmos Drive for all ya know!"

Alex stared at Shina's face as her eyelashes flapped like a butterfly wings and she put on an almost pitiful puppy dog pout. Before his face was as red as beet Alex glanced away and quietly bemoaned "This is going to be a long journey…" before letting out a sigh and forcing himself to say "F-Fine…But we're going to survey the island before landing, ok?"

"Thank you Alex! I knew your kindness would come through!" Shina said while clapping her hands and standing back upright.

"N-Nnnrrrg!" Was the only thing Alex could respond with before he flipped his body around and pushed the sphere back towards the island. _"That smile of hers is more dangerous than anything Joe Dark ever threw at me! …Deep breath Alex, you need this to work out…"_ Alex did exactly that as he moved the sphere over the island, breaching the light fog hovering over it as the pale light of the planet's two moons laid everything bare for the duo to see.

There was a circular arena with a pool of green lava surrounding it, and at least four creatures were on the arena. There was a blue penguin with a white belly, a pair of rocket launchers on his shoulders, a jetpack strapped to a belt around his body, and a metal army helmet on his head. The second creature was a small green dragonfly with eyes as big as it's head and a light glow around it, and the third one was a small four legged purple dragon with curved yellow horns and small wings on his back.

Noticeably though, those three are all lying on the ground badly bruised, with the dragon trying his hardest to stay on his feet before the creature that had grabbed Shina's attention earlier. It was a large monster with two thick furry goat legs and a muscular upper body with small horns on his shoulders. His green eyes were devoid of pupils or irises, and he carried with him a large sparking blue cannon. Right now though, the monster had a thick, wavy purple aura around his body and his eyes released a red glow for a brief moment as he pointed the weapon at the dragon and beat a fist against his chest.

He was likely one shot away from finishing the three other creatures off, and the dragonfly let out a few weak buzzes that sounded like he was saying something. The dragon looked at him and let out a light chuckle, remarking weakly but confidently "We're not done yet Sparx. Don't worry, we can still make it through this." As the glow of the cannon entered his line of sight, the dragon turned and glared fiercely at the monster in front of him as it let out a bellowing laugh.

In the sphere, Shina suddenly lurched forward with widened eyes and exclaimed "I-I recognize that dragon! Oh my gosh he's going to die if we don't step in!" She looked at Alex expecting him to respond, but the boy was currently frozen in disbelief at what he was looking at.

" _T-That's Spyro…I-I can't believe the Mushroom Kingom isn't the only video game world out there…"_ He was so deep in thought that he didn't hear Shina at first, and was thus completely surprised when she held her hand behind her back and sprinted right out of the sphere while summoning her rapier in her grasp.

"S-Shina, wait a second!" Alex exclaimed to no avail as the girl landed on the ground and skidded until she was between the monster and the purple dragon right as he fired. She swung her rapier in front of herself and repelled the large sphere of electricity into the air, keeping her weapon held high as the sphere burst into a field of electricity that brightened the skies. Needless to say, the purple dragon widened his eyes at the sudden assistance he received.

Even against his better judgment, Alex broke the sphere apart and landed on the ground beside Shina, bluntly telling her "Darn it Shina, I told you we were just observing!" Alex widened his eyes for a moment and raised a hand to his mouth. His thoughts had him wanting to say "damn" but instead "darn" came out. He quickly began to suspect something about that sensation he felt from entering the atmosphere.

"But Alex, we just saved Spyro! You know, Spyro the Dragon?!" Shina was absolutely excited and pumped her fists before her face even as the monster aimed his weapon at her.

"T-That's…What?! I mean yeah it's him, but…No! You can't just casually reveal you kn-" Even in the middle of being flustered, Alex sensed the electricity building in the monster's weapon and right as it's being fired his body reacts on instinct and he leaps forward with his teeth grit to push Shina in the gut and get her out of the way. Then the attack connected and Alex was launched over Spyro, landing on the edge of the arena with his right arm smoking a little.

"Ghhh…!" He let out a cry as he clenched the lower part of his arm and heard a light sizzle, thinking to himself as he glared at the monster _"There's no way it's this strong…_ " He then swung his fingers out and called forth a series of flames that merged into the shape of a blade, and a second later a burning sword with a slick surface and the colors of the sun on it fell into Alex's grasp. He then leaped back into the fray and swung down at the beast as hard as he could, leaving a burning indent in the air as his foe was pushed back.

Alex then held onto the burning part of his arm and swung it around to blow the smoke off, letting out a slight grunt as he commented dryly "So this is what it feels like to fight again after so long." His muscles, while stiff, could at least recall the memory of swinging the blade.

Meanwhile, the dragonfly Sparx lifted his head up and made some more remarks in a rather crass and confused tone. Spyro just looked his way and replied "I'm just as confused as you are buddy." Shina turned around and then kneeled down, looking the puzzled purple dragon right in the eyes with a very wide smile on her face. The two stared at each other for a few seconds until Spyro let out a simple "…Ummm, hello?"

Shina suddenly picked up one of Spyro's claws and shook it repeatedly, telling him with increasing fascination in her voice "I'msogladtomeetyouSpyrosir,I'mareallyreallyhugefanof-" Spyro widened his eyes quite a bit and tried to interrupt with an inquiry of "Ummm…Who are you?" Shina stopped immediately and then let go of his claw so she could smack her forehead, followed by her cracking a grin with her eyes shut.

"That was rude of me. The name's Shina Aurora, and the boy behind me is Alex Whiter! We're-"

"Shina! This monster's not budging, so you mind helping out?!" Alex suddenly exclaimed after being pushed back a few inches from a couple blasts from the monster's weapon as it laughs at him. Alex grips his sword tightly and tenses his muscles, and Shina could feel his aura roughing up. Shina then looked back at Spyro and held her hands out, saying in a chipper voice "Let me just get you back into tip-top shape, Spyro!"

Shina then poured some aura out of her hands that quickly wrapped around Spyro's body, making it glow and sparkle as the pain of his wounds quickly subsided to his surprise. He stands stable on his feet and flaps his wings a little, then looks up and says with a bit of appreciation "Thanks, but can you get my buddies patched up?" He then nudged his head towards the dragonfly and penguin.

Shina proudly nodded her head and then gently picked up Sparx in her palm and infusing him with a bit of her aura. The dragonfly turned blue and then golden, with it doing a flip off of Shina's hand and flapping it's wings while letting out some joyous buzzes. Shina held her hands together and smiled, then quickly moved over to the penguin while Sparx tilted his head a little and spoke with his friend. Spyro raised his brows a bit and commented "Like the tastiest butterfly huh?"

After one more aura treatment, Shina backs up as the penguin's eyes open up, and with a little dizziness he said with a slight British accent "Haven't felt this winded since Hummingbird boot camp." The penguin then wiggled back and forth, trying to get back onto his feet. "It appears I am stuck. Oh the pains of having tiny arms sometimes…" Quickly, Shina stood up behind the penguin and rested her hands around his body, caressing his cold feathery body a little and letting out a tiny squee before propping him upright.

"I thank you for the timely assistance lass. Can't say I was expecting more reinforcements in this critical hour!" The penguin said as he turned around and looked the kneeling and smiling girl in the eyes. Shina gestured her hand out and asked "What happened?" The penguin held a flipper out in the direction of the monster Alex has currently attacked with a giant exploding fireball, which made the penguin pause for a moment in order to slap himself and make sure he wasn't still dreaming.

"W-We were in the middle of combat with one of the Sorceress' creatures, fighting the valiant fight if I do say so myself…But out of nowhere the creature exploded with a strange purple field of energy around his rugged body and turned the tide on us. Fair to say had it not been for your timely arrival, we'd be six feet under." The penguin then looked at Shina and said "My apologies, I hadn't introduced myself. Agent 90068, or Sgt. Byrd if you prefer."

Shina and Sgt. Byrd shook hand and flipper as she replied "Shina Aurora, and my friend is-"

"Introductions later, fight now!" Alex's said with his impatience growing as he swung his right hand out to catch an electric sphere and then crunch it down to nothing with a single grasp. Shina however just looked at both Sgt. Byrd and Spyro and asked them after a brief chuckle "Just do what you were doing before, we're here as back-up." She then summoned her rapier again and flipped it around as it was held behind her before standing back to observe the monster.

Sgt. Byrd looked to Spyro and reached into a pouch on his belt, pulling out a sparkly sapphire crystal with many points on it. "Shall we go another round Spyro?" He inquired before tossing the crystal at Spyro, who opened his mouth to put it in there, leaving his scaly cheeks so puffed he could only reply with a nod. Sgt. Byrd then used his jetpack to take flight above the arena while Spyro turned and spat the crystal out in an arc. Pushed back by one of Alex's kicks, the monster suddenly swung his right hand up and caught the crystal, letting out a laugh before he swiftly stuffed the crystal into his weapon and slammed the front of it against the ground.

Building up pressure against the ground, the weapon made lava crack out of the floor before a gigantic wall of fire flies towards Alex. As the monster is left staggering with recoil, Spyro is tossed another crystal so he can launch it at them, but Shina suddenly widens her eyes and sprints forward, ducking underneath the crystal and pulling back on her rapier. The monster turns and is hit in the face by the crystal, blinding it long enough for Shina to thrust her rapier out and pierce the weapon.

She then pulls back and holds the rapier by the handle on a finger, balancing both weapons before her head while waving a hand at the now defenseless monster. The monster raised an eyebrow in confusion before looking to the right at a burning glow, as Alex now held his hands close to his chest after condensing the wall of fire into a sphere.

"Move, Shina!" Alex exclaimed as the fire crackled loudly in his eardrums, and Shina leaped back gently with an anticipating smile on her face. Thrusting his hands out, Alex fired upon the monster with a powerful beam of flames that seared the floor beneath it and increased the temperature in the atmosphere, which even a dragon like Spyro felt as he widened his eyes and let out an impressed "Whoa, cool!"

The monster tried to take it's hands to the front of the beam that was bigger than itself, but the strength of Alex's attack pushed it back towards the edge of the arena. Even with the monster digging it's claws into the ground enough to rip it up, the push was only slowed. The monster growled and moaned until it's heels were starting to go off the edge of the arena, when all of a sudden it's aura flared up and it's eyes glowed red again, allowing it enough strength to stalemate the beam.

But Alex did not need to apply anymore pressure, as Spyro leaned forward and lined himself up with the monster, charging forward with his horns at the forefront, and with a brave leap he struck the monster right in the gut as Alex dispelled his flames. There was more than enough force applied to make the monster stumble back as Spyro landed on the ground and safely leaped back, watching as the monster waved it's arms around then turned to the group with a surprised expression right before he's plunged right into the lava with the aura surrounding his body shattering.

The last thing the monster did besides having a spotted ivory egg tossed onto the arena is give a thumbs up. Shina dispels her rapier and leaps to catch the egg, turning around as she sticks the landing and bundles the egg warmly in her arms, it's rough but cold texture giving her goosebumps.

"Mmm…" She hummed for a while, the egg feeling just right in her arms until Spyro stepped in front of her and said "I'll take that egg now. Sorry, it's important I get them all back." Shina widened her eyes and then gently placed the egg on the ground, but for a moment she thought back to cuddling her baby sister in her arms. Her hands stayed on the egg for a moment before she smiled and pulled back, quietly watching as the egg began to shake and hatch while Alex walked up beside her.

"I'd really like to know what the hubbub was with that monster's strength…" Alex stood still and blinked blankly a few times at what he said again, but Shina raised a finger up to his mouth and wanted him to be quiet as a baby dragon was hatched from the egg. It was small and grey with blue wings barely bigger than a human's finger and slightly curved back blue horns. It looked up at Spyro and wagged it's tail, making a tiny leap to tap snouts with it's elder. Spyro flinched a bit but let out a tiny chuckle, but the baby dragon could not stay for long as a few rings of magical energy surrounded and warped it away to safety.

Shina's eyelashes were left fluttering again as she held her hands against her cheeks and let out prolonged hum of joy. Spyro turned around as Sgt. Byrd landed and gave his best salute with a flipper "That was quite the close call Spyro. We have our new comrades to thank for this victory on the battlefield!"

"Yeah, good job you two. You guys planning to stick around for a while?" Spyro asked while turning his head to look at them.

"We really should-"

"Sure! You want our help?!" Shina interrupted Alex's attempt to respond, leading to him grumbling as he closed his eyes a bit and glared at the girl, who was holding her arms behind herself and was rather perky in the way she stood upright.

"Nothing wrong with having a couple more allies, right Sparx?" Spyro asked while glancing at his little friend, who happily buzzed a response to him.

"Then I suppose this matter is settled. I'll see you another time then Spyro my boy. Keep fighting the good fight!" Sgt. Byrd then flew off, while at the same time a whirligig dropped down safely onto the edge of the arena close to the dragon. With the wooden platform and the tiny propeller you wouldn't think it capable of flight, but Spyro's confident boarding of the machine said otherwise.

"Don't think there's enough room for three." Spyro commented as he turned around. Shina casually lifted herself up off the ground with hands held out and smiled, and the dragon raised his eyebrows and after a chuckle commented "You two are full of surprises. Alright Sparx, next stop…Evening Lake!" The dragonfly tapped a button on the bottom of the propeller to get it to start flying away from this arena.

Shina begins to follow Spyro through the air and Alex, dragged into what's going on almost against his will, just grits his teeth and mumbles "Doggone it Shina…!" before taking off after the two.

 _Next Time: The Relaxing Lakeside_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Elation in the Evening Lake**

As the whirligig takes Spyro through the slowly changing skies towards his next destination, Shina and on occasion Alex tell the dragon and his little flying friend what they were doing here. Spyro just nodded his head throughout, paying attention just enough to get the gist of their goals, though he was pretty flabbergasted by how energetic the girl was in particular. When they were done, Shina smiled and said nonchalantly "And that's how we met ya!"

"Uh…huh?" Spyro's brows were raised as he spoke in a rather dazed manner, and he exchanged a glance with Sparx as the dragonfly at least clearly buzzed the words "I don't know" while shrugging his wings.

"I know it's a lot to swallow, especially since Shina went a LITTLE too fast…" Alex took a moment to glare at an awkwardly giggling Shina before looking back and continuing "But the thing is-"

"Don't worry about it, I just don't really know what this 'Cosmos Drive' is. But I'm glad to have some more assistance with the Dragon Eggs."

"Got a real collect-a-thon on your case here dontcha Spyro? We're more than happy to help considering we've do-" Alex widened his eyes and then quickly took a hand to Shina's mouth to muffle her voice, and she keeps speaking even while turning her head to watch as Alex put a finger to his lips to give her the hint.

Thankfully Spyro didn't notice all that and said "Oh, and keep an eye out for any Gems when we get to Evening Lake. Experience has taught me they are always important for later."

While the dragon then took a moment to look out towards the sunset brown clouded sky that formed in the distance, Shina and Alex glided a bit away from the whirligig so they could speak quietly to each other. Alex at first gave a wide-eyed, peeved glare at Shina for a few seconds until she asked in a puzzled tone "Is something the matter?"

"You can't just CASUALLY tell someone we've seen them in fictional media."

"Why not?" Shina pondered with a finger raised to her lips and a purposely ditzy look in her eyes. Alex floated upright and folded his arms together before responding with his eyes shut "Well how would you feel if someone had played your life experiences before they even happened?"

"That'd be cooool!" Shina unhesitantly said while pumping her fists against her chest and a sparkle forming in her eyes, which caused Alex to grimace and tell her while still trying his hardest to keep his voice down "No it's not! It's very weird and unnerving!"

"Come to think about it, maybe someone out there plays video games based on the Elemental Overlo-"

"No! STOP!" Alex didn't restrain himself this time as he swung both his arms out in one swift motion, and thus Spyro looked over and asked "What's up you two?"

"Nothing, nothing! Hehehe!" Shina said while waving her hands around, and Spyro just shrugged it off and looked back ahead. Alex then lowered his body and continued gliding forward beside Shina, murmuring with his eyes closed "I'm adding a new rule…Don't EVER bring that idea up again." With a slight scowl at the thought, Alex shivered while Shina held a hand to her lips and quietly chuckled.

"Didn't you tell Mario the truth?" She asked in a humored tone, and Alex glanced aside with a slight bit of embarrassment on his face before stuttering "I-I was young and foolish! Besides, Mario and Spyro are two completely different people!"

"Oh, please! Spyro's such a carefree guy…Do you REALLY think he'd question his existence? That he'd break down bawling on the floor? Or that he'd just WRITHE in pain for hours on end?" Shina turned and flew on her backside, letting her hair drape down as she rested the back of a hand atop her forehead and used a rather playful tone of voice.

"Oh cut it out…I'm more annoyed that we're bothering to help Spyro considering we KNOW he'll complete this journey alive. The Cosmos Drive isn't here anyways." After that was said Shina flipped herself so she was pointing her body straight at Alex, her arms resting under her chin before she replied "Ya say that, and yet Spike nearly ended Spyro's game. That aura's really suspicious I'm telling ya, and I get the feeling it'll show up again. If we leave him alone, Spyro-"

"Shina, I hope you haven't forgotten why we're traveling the universe. You need the Cosmos Drive to stop Gravitus. Didn't YOU tell me that there's no time to waste?" Alex brandishes a finger at Shina, touching her nose while speaking in an irritated manner. Shina gently pushes down on Alex's hand with her own and replied in a firm manner "I haven't forgotten anything, but…It won't take long to help Spyro out, and can ya really say you'd feel right hoping that he won't run into trouble again?"

"Ghhh…No, I wouldn't. But we can't make a habit out of this, otherwise we're just burning our time away." Alex bluntly said while lightly gritting his teeth as Shina grinned his way and chuckled.

"Well how about this? We just got here, so there's nothing suggesting we won't find a clue somewhere, right? If we spent two days here and found something, then that'd definitely be worth it." Shina rationalized, and begrudgingly Alex folded his arms and mumbled "Well…At least you HAVE given it some thought."

"Finally, we made it!" Spyro suddenly commented with relief in his voice as the whirligig descended towards a much bigger floating island that had a series of yellow-topped brown mountains around it's edge and a clean stone castle half-submerged in a luscious lake. Alex and Shina dropped their conversation and stared at the island, setting foot on it at the same time as Spyro's whirligig. The dragon then stepped onto the grass and looked towards the sky, noticing a rainbow streak zipping back and forth as it approached him.

"Aaaaand right on cue." Spyro said with little joy, though he then flinched and glanced back as he heard a "thump!", noticing that Shina has thrown herself and Alex onto the ground behind the whirligig. However their efforts to hide from the presence were being foiled by Shina's longer legs sticking out, though she didn't know that as she laid atop Alex's back.

"W-What are you…?!" Alex's face was red as his chin ate dirt and Shina's breasts were pressed against his back, with her putting a hand to his mouth to keep him quiet as the rainbow streak landed on the ground in front of Spyro, and with a flash of light a person wearing a long-sleeved violet hooded cloak appears from the magic rainbow. They had vanilla fur and blue eyes with a slight bit of blonde hair sticking out from the top of their head, and a bunny-like nose. Right away, she started in on Spyro.

"Listen to me dragon…Spyro…this is serious now. The Sorceress is planning a trap and if she catches you…believe me, you don't want to know what she's going to do." Spyro simply rolled his eyes even as the strange girl was sounding a slight bit desperate, and after a sigh she rubbed her forehead and continued "Look, I promise to take good care of the rest of the eggs. I mean it…J-Just take Hunter with you and go back home or else…I-I can't even say it, just go! And your outsider friends should heed this warning as well!"

The strange girl then vanished in a magical flash of colored lights after getting rather vocal at the end, and Shina pushed herself back onto her feet and said while scratching the side of her face "Heh, guess she noticed us after all." Alex quickly stood up and after pulling the dirt off his face he glared into Shina's eyes with a frazzled blush in his cheeks before he walked past her and faced Spyro, who had turned around at that moment.

"Well, you two ready to get searching?" He said nonchalantly, leading to Alex standing in front of him and saying to keep up the act "You don't look worried at all."

"That Sorceress' apprentice has been nothing but empty threats this journey. Wasn't scared the other two times, not going to be scared now." When Spyro was done Sparx buzzed a little to the left of his face, and he replied "We'll tell Hunter later. Hey, if you two see a cheetah walking around, pass on that HORRIBLE warning to him" his voiced oozed with sarcasm at the end and he even chuckled a little after. He was then ready to go into the lake nearby, but Shina suddenly rushed in front of him and raised a hand up.

"Wait a second Mr. Spyro! Shouldn't you tell us what we're doing first?" Shina then folded her arms behind herself and eagerly awaited the dragon's directions. Alex bluntly pointed out right after as he stayed behind Spyro "Get Gems and Eggs, that's not that hard to memorize, Shina."

"But HOW are we going to do it? There's three of us here ya know." Shina cracked a grin, and Spyro sat his hind legs down and commented as he glanced back and forth at them "Well we can cover a lot of ground, so I guess just clear out this place before going into any portals you find. Can't split Sparx up between the three of us though, so you'll have to carry any gems back to him."

Sparx flew right up to Shina and smiled clearly, buzzing out a few words merrily, and while Shina smiled and patted him on the head twice she said nervously "I-I'm sorry Spyro, I'm not fluent in dragonfly."

"Oh no worries, he's saying he wants to help any way he can. You can rely on him, guaranteed." Spyro then received a "thank you" buzz from his friend as he flew back to his side, and the dragon commented right after as he stood back on all legs "Ready now? I'm itching to torch some more Rhynocs."

"Yeah I'm good. Lets go swimming!" Shina suddenly did a 180 and ran to the edge of the lake, leaping right off and diving headfirst into the water as Alex widened his eyes and thought _"What the helium?! …This censoring is going to get to me by the time this is done, I swear…"_ He ran up to the lake while Spyro just dived right in himself, though at least his behavior was sane in doing so. Alex could see Shina floating upright in the middle of the water due to how clear it was, but she waved up and then opened her mouth.

"Come on Alex, jump in!" Her voice was heard with only a little disruption and only a few bubbles came out of her mouth. Alex let out a quiet "Wha…?" and then looked at the surface of the water, finding the idea of what Shina was doing rather suspect. He slowly moved his right foot off the ground and tapped the surface of the water to release a ripple, but then he pulled back and felt his heart racing a little.

" _How can this…BEEEEEE?!"_ He's suddenly shocked when Shina rises to the water's surface and gently tugs on his lower leg to make him tip over and fall face first into the lake. Shina fell backwards into the water, lightly kicking her legs to keep a slow descent while Alex's limbs were extended rather messily at first, the impact with the water's surface having dazed his mind and vision. The first thing he saw was Shina in front of him with a playful grin and her hair spread about, and she wiggled some fingers towards herself before turning around and kicking her legs to glide through the water.

"Woo-hoo!" Shina said while somersaulting twice through the water, leading to her back leaning against the side of the castle as she hovers upside-down, though she just giggles playfully and readjusts herself with a turn while Alex continues to float in place, his eyes wide with shock yet his vision of the area as clear as could be. He held his hands in front of him and felt some resistance moving, but everything else about this situation defied all he knew about swimming underwater.

"T-This doesn't make sense…" Alex said, and then he realized his clothes weren't a burden on him in the water. He wasn't the least bit dampened, and neither was Shina. Shina then swam over to him and put his hands together between her own, looking him in the eyes and saying with a bright smile "It's magical, isn't it amazing?! Come on, lets go go go!" Shina lets go, and having quickly adjusted to the magic water she goes swimming away to start collecting stuff. Alex sighs and scratches the side of his head, then chooses to get a move on as well. Underneath one of the castle's arched bridges, Spyro paddles a bit in place while Sparx buzzes a few words to him.

"I agree Sparx, you'd think they'd never gone swimming before." Spyro said in a humored manner before he continued to swim through the lake in search of gems, which his companion picked up rather quickly and had sent away through magic.

Though he was still adjusting to this strange water, Alex had enough of a grip on the situation to start making his way around the lake, though he had accidentally lost sight of Shina. "It's not a big area…Where the hubbub did…she…" Alex floated in place, folded his arms together, and after a bit of finger tapping he let out an incredible sigh. Then he went on ahead and saw a portal surrounded by a temple-like arch attached to a wall. When he approached it some thick golden text appeared with a slight curve, telling Alex that this was the way to a place called Frozen Altars.

He ignored entering that for now and swam out of the water, crawling onto a small pyramid made of giant square stones and shaking himself until realizing he doesn't need to. Then he looks to the left and sees a detached castle tower, thinking to himself _"I hope I'm remembering this right…"_ before he leaped up onto the ledge of the tower and noticed a few gems and a Dragon Egg in his sight. He picked up the gems telepathically and approached the egg, which caused it to suddenly start shaking and after a few seconds it hatched.

A baby dragon pops out similar to the one seen after Spike's defeat, but it had a nice little bow pink bow and a mint-green color to it. Right away, the little dragon stood up on it's hind legs and did a cartwheel to the left, holding it's claws out and panting a bit. Alex stared at the baby dragon until the magic rings teleported it away, his expression stoic the whole time. "Well that's one down, four to go…" Alex let out a sigh and then turned around, leaping off the tower and back into the water, where he immediately saw Spyro charging his way into the side of one of the castle's walls.

The part of the wall blows up and rocks go scattering behind him as he enters a hidden chamber, finding a few gems and another Dragon Egg. Alex catches up to the dragon by the time the egg has hatched and been sent off. When Spyro turns around and prepares to swim his way out, he accidentally rams right into Alex's gut, and after he lets out a gasp of air and is pushed back in recoil the boy gives Spyro a dull glance.

"Sorry about that. Any lucky with the Eggs?" Spyro inquired after a sincere but embarrassed apology as Sparx took the Gems Alex had picked up so far.

"I found one…Say, have you seen Shina anywhere?" Alex asked while gesturing out, and Spyro shook his head in response. Alex then clenches his fist and murmured "Yeah, alright…Guess I'll keep looking." He quickly turned around and swam off, with Spyro not making any comments before he continued on his search. Alex glanced back to make sure Spyro was on the right track, and the fact he went for a stone ladder above the surface meant he was.

"Hrmm…" He then decided to head into a tunnel that had red-white striped poles with working sparklers on the top of them. At that point, Alex closed his eyes and grimaced while his head started to hurt, and he slowly swam through until he ended up finding Shina near the end of the tunnel in front of another portal to a place called Fireworks Factory. The arch around the portal shared the aesthetics of the castle but cast an orange light into the tunnel. At the moment, she had an orb of aura with some gems contained within it, but she was also just floating in front of that portal.

"There you are…Have you found any Eggs around here yet?" Instead of getting a direct answer from her, Alex watches as Shina tenses up and then turns sideways, a sparkle in her eyes as she swiftly pointed at the portal and exclaimed "Can we please go there right now?!"

"Oh for crispy's sake…! Shina, we need to go where Spyro goes, you JUST pointed that out!" Alex said while rubbing his aching forehead. Shina turned himself the rest of the way and clenched her fists tightly, a wide smile on her face.

"ButFireworksFactoryisthebest!Atmosphere,music,thingstodo,it'salljustso-"

"SHINA, FOCUS!" Whether it was from his headache, the magic of this world, or Shina's enthusiastic rambling, Alex finally let his temper loose with enough force to make the water around him bubble. Shina froze with a half-effort smile, giving her ally a chance to calm down a bit before asking gently "Aren't you a little excited?" Alex just growled and tapped his fingers on his arms in a steady rhythm.

"Maybe you'll feel nostalgic when we go there. I guess we can get back to finding things. Come on!" After that chipper remark Shina swam past Alex and exited the tunnel, and he turned around and with a slight scowl he quickly went after her to make sure he didn't lose her again. She ended up pausing in the middle of the lake and looking around, noticing a sunken ship with a portal attached to the side of it and a fairy-tale like tower with another portal on it.

"Looks like Spyro cleaned up around here. I better make sure though…" Shina then looked towards the right and swam towards a passage in front of the tower portal, while Alex paused in the spot she was just at and panted a bit, thinking to himself as he raised a hand against his chin _"W-Why am I getting tired already? Something really fishy is going on here…"_

While he was thinking about that, Alex failed to notice the big wide cartoonish whale swimming behind him, and by the time it opened it's mouth and began to suck Alex in he was too late to turn around and react. The whale had a goofy smile on it's face and let out a bellow of glee right as Shina swam back into the area and saw what had happened. She couldn't help but chuckle even as she approached the whale and flicked her right hand out, creating a feather made of aura and wiggling it against the bottom of the creature's mouth.

"Come on big guy, let my friend out. He'd be too spicy to digest anyways! Heh!" Shina kept tickling the whale as it let out a bellowing guffaw and bubbles spewed from it's mouth, eventually leading to it being open enough for Alex to shoot right out of the beast with a Dragon Egg wrapped under his right arm. Shina then dispelled the feather and backed off safely with Alex, who then held the egg out beside himself as it hatched into a brown baby dragon that instantly started doing a handstand on Alex's arm until it was carried away by magic.

"There's Jonah, at least…" Alex said dryly, and Shina's chuckle after just made him glare at her with a look more frustrated than he appeared to be before. Thankfully he wouldn't be that way for long as Spyro dove into the water and swam next to them, and Sparx picked up the gems from Shina's aura orb.

"Zoe told me we got all the eggs here, but there's still a few gems left." Spyro commented, indicating he got the egg at the top of the castle. Shina laid a hand on her chin and asked "We haven't checked the underwater castle tunnel, have we?"

"Don't think so. And there's a certain SOMEONE we haven't run across yet, huh Sparx?" Spyro sighed as Sparx let out an irritated buzz, and the two of them decided to head for the tunnel with the traveling duo keeping up with them. The tunnel led to a secret cavern within the castle's inside, but besides the few remaining gems there was one other intriguing sight. Trapped in a giant gold bird cage is a large muscular beast with curved horns, a docile demeanor and a crystal club in his right hand. His captor is a portly standing bear with a fancy brooch worn tuxedo, a monocle in front of his right green eye and a bag with a "gem" on it held in his right hand.

Spyro instantly rolled his eyes as he approached the bear, whose eyes lit up and a smile crossed his goofy face as he began to say in a rather affable tone "Ah Spyro! You appear to have brought a couple of new customers with you! I would be glad to…ahem…'help' them with their money when I'm done with you. You see, the Sorceress has given me a real prize here today, I heard it took two dozen rhynocs to lock up this dimwitted furball. So if you wish to have your own personal yeti, then you're going to cough up some…mmm…hefty riches."

The yeti in question glared at the bear halfway through his selling pitch, and Shina stepped back and quietly said "Oh Moneybags, you silly ol' bear." Spyro then said with only a degree of resistance "Alright Moneybags, how much do you want this time?"

"Spyro my boy, since you are such a valued customer around these parts, I'd be willing to give you this yeti for the low, low price of…1000 gems!" The moment Moneybags said that, he was met with the glow and tip of Alex's sword, giving him a miniature heart attack while Spyro looked up in surprise. "G-Goodness gracious!" Moneybags exclaimed while Alex glared at him fiercely.

"Release the yeti for free or I'll free that bag of money from your hand." As Alex gave the ultimatum with no levity in his voice, Moneybag's legs started trembling and the monocle lowered on his face. What stopped Alex from going through is Shina laying a hand on his arm and gently lowering it, and she slowly shook her head with her eyes shut and said "Ah ah ah, no assaulting the con artist." Alex gave her a look of 'you can't be serious' immediately after.

"Yeah, relax a bit. You'll probably get to see something funny in a moment. Sparx, go ahead and give him the gems." Spyro then gestured his head towards the bear as he eases up once Alex dispels his sword, and he opens his bag up so Sparx and send 1000 gems into it via magic. With a chuckle Moneybags said "Where ARE you getting all this money? Heheh, surely it's not just lying on the ground, is it? …Err, is it? Ahh, what do I care, it's mine now!"

Even for his scheming nature, Moneybags was a bear of his word and once he closed the bag he clapped his hands a couple times and the cage around the yeti vanished in a puff of magic. Behind where the yeti stood, the crystal-stone arch opened a portal to a new location. The first thing the beast did with his freedom was stretch his arms up high and let out a serene groan of relief.

"Ah, the first rejuvenating breath…of freedom!" The yeti spoke in a surprisingly wise sounding tone, and he immediately looked to the four who allowed his release and said "With the humility of a wounded sparrow, I genuflect my noble delivery!" He bowed his free arm against his chest, while Spyro raised a brow and didn't quite know how to respond.

"Uhhh…It was no big deal dude." Was the best he could come up with. Then Moneybags let out a cough, trying to direct the attention of everyone towards him, but the yeti had only an angry glare to give to the bear.

"Why yes…After all, it was I who let you out!" Moneybags tried to approach the yeti with his bag opened up slightly, and the yeti's glare became wide-eyed and he held nothing back as he bluntly said "Why you BRAZEN, AVARICIOUS, DUPLICITOUS, LARCENOUS, URSINE!"

Sensing the hostility as the yeti slowly pulled back on his club, Moneybags stepped back and waved his arms out while stuttering "N-Now wait just a second here…!" For the next few seconds, the yeti took his club and bashed the ever loving bejeebers out of Moneybags, shaking the castle while Spyro, Shina and Alex let out a few pained but somewhat satisfied grimaces as the bear groaned in pain. The yeti paused for a moment as stars circle above Moneybags' head and inquired "One more, perhaps?"

"At LEAST." The group said in unison with enthusiasm, and after winding up his swing a little the yeti smacked Moneybags hard in the rear to send him flying against the wall above the water. The bear was stuck there until he slid and squeaked his way down into the water, though everyone focused back on the yeti as he approached Spyro and said merrily "PLEASE do afford me the sublime honor of enjoying your visitation in the nearest future."

"Yeah…sure…" Spyro said, still having no idea how to respond to the yeti's quaint manner of speaking even as he went through the portal…Without giving his name to the group. Once Spyro realized that, he said to Sparx "For a polite yeti, he sure forgot to tell us who he even was." Sparx then flew near the portal and buzzed as text appeared in front of it that said 'Bentley's Outpost'.

"Huh, guess that answers that."

Shina then stepped in front of Spyro and said "I'll go through this portal and see what gems and Eggs I can find. You and Alex can search one of the other portals!" Her sudden idea to split-up was not known by Alex, who vocally stated "H-Hey!"

"Alright cool! We'll cover way more ground then!"

"Sweet! Good luck Alex, I'll catch up with you both later!" Shina pumped her fists and then backflipped into the portal before Alex could say anything, leaving him frozen with his hand held out and his mouth agape. Spyro turned around and said "Lets check out that 'Lost Fleet' portal. Can always trust sunken ships to have lots of gems."

"Uhhh…riiight, sure thing" Alex said while slowly rubbing the back of his head and glancing away from Spyro until the dragon charges right into the water behind him. Alex takes one glance towards the portal and says "…Just remember Alex, you're learning from her." He then took one sigh and turned to follow Spyro to the sunken ship where the portal to their next destination lied.

 _Next Time: The Yeti's Home_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Brawl at Bentley's Outpost**

Shina glided through a vast expanse of bright purple sky while resting on her back. Frosted mountains were in the distance across the whole area, enveloped in a layer of thick cold fog, and a large floating island was slowly coming into view behind her. She glanced back, the cold air feeling good as it brushed against her skin, and a moment later she closed her eyes and was left in thought.

" _To be so far away, and yet still feel like I'm home…"_ She carried on that pleasant thought with a bright smile, unaware that her body was slowly being gravitated to the southern part of the island against her will. She'd receive a rude awakening when she falls back first onto a solid rock, and her eyes jerk open with a bit of pain on the back of her head.

She immediately sits up and goes "Owieeeee!" while rubbing the back of her head before looking around and noticing that she was in a stone cube with an open ceiling, and parts of the walls were marked with half flowers etched into it. When Shina looked behind her though, she was greeted by two sights, a black tunnel and the kindly Bentley.

"Oh! Hi there!" Shina perkily raised her hand and waved to the yeti, who held his hand out and said "You took quite a fall there lass. May I be so kind as to help you to your feet?" Shina accepted his help and grabbed his hand, pausing as a chill went through her nerves, and taking some time to feel the skin on the yeti's palm. To her, it felt like her lips, but a bit fleshier and cracked. A tall person in her own right, Shina was still a bit shorter than the yeti, and had to look up to make eye contact.

"Thank you Mr. Bentley…Heh, now I see why Spyro always flies through portals the way he does." When Shina gives the yeti's name, he replied in a rather puzzled tone "I-I must profusely apologize, but it seems my reputation proceeds me." Shina stepped back a bit and widened her eyes, smacking her forehead and chuckling a little right after.

"Oh I'm sorry! Your name was in front of the portal! L-Let me make it up to you properly. My name is Shina Aurora, and as an ally of all things good I've come to help!" Shina said while laying a hand against her chest and smiling brightly, her eager tone earning a gentle guffaw from the yeti.

"I am quite enamored by your forthright desire, Shina. I'd imagine my mountain home has been engulfed in chaos since my untimely capture, so if you were to help me clean up I would be more than happy to assist in the defeat of the Sorceress." Shina wasted no time in nodding her head.

"Absolutely! Lets bash some Rhynocs, hehe!" Shina was very excited to help, and after Bentley nodded his head he turned around and with a swing of his club out he stated "Then allow us to engage in some clean but rigorous roughhousing!" The two then entered the black tunnel and after a short walk ended up at the main land, which started out with a small cavern with a darker stone structure but the same half flowers etched into the lower edge of the walls. At the end of the cavern was a small staircase and a yeti that was a head shorter than Bentley with none of the bulk he had along with him having a pair of green eyes.

"Bartholomew! How are you doing, my roguish little brother?" Bentley said while approaching the small yeti, who widened his eyes and exclaimed in a peppy but cockney tone "Bro! You finally escaped capture!"

"Hahaha! You have a purple dragon named Spyro to thank for that. He risked his hard earned riches to ensure my release from that stuffy cage." Bentley said in good favor, and Bartholomew replied with utter shock "Wow, a dragon?! And they said they were just a myth! …Now who's this lass beside you?" The little yeti stretched a bit to the right to point at Shina, and Bentley turned his head to see that she was currently standing still with a sparkle in her gaze that was focused entirely on Bartholomew.

Suddenly, Shina leaped forward and tackled Bartholomew into the front of the stairs, her body resting on the ground as she hugged him gently and kicked her feet up and down. "W-Waaaaah! I'm under attack bro!" Bartholomew freaked out and swung his arms around, but Shina was no threat to the yeti and she slowly caressed the fur on his back.

"It's like a giant horned teddy bear…" Shina said in an enamored tone while her face warmed up as she leaned in against the little yeti's chest, though as Bartholomew continued to freak Bentley stepped in and plucked Shina by the back of her shirt while letting out a lighthearted chuckle.

"That's quite enough of that." Bentley said while putting Shina down on her feet, though she still raised a hand to her face while smiling brightly at Bartholomew, who shook a bit and stuttered "T-Thanks. Anyways, the Rhynocs have invaded our home! I wanted to bash them in, but I errr…left my bashing club at home, yeah! …And then I got trapped behind a boulder...Did I mention I'm glad to have you back?"

"Well then I shall give the Rhynocs the quaint honor of having their cerebellums ruffled. Stand back little brother, Shina, I shall lead the way!" Bentley spun his club around a couple times and then jumped a couple times to climb the stairs before he shattered the boulder with one hard swing. A gem was revealed within it, and upon seeing it Shina turned around and noticed a few more gems in the area.

"Oh yeah I need to get these!" Shina said while snapping her fingers, followed by her flicking her wrist out to grab the gems in the area with ropes of aura, gathering them all into a sphere that floated behind as she turned back around, where Bentley and his little brother had left the cavern. She followed them out with a quick float past the steps, entering a more open area with a snowy ground and a clear view of the sky. The wall were roughly the same, but the ceiling was lined with thick icicles.

Once her feet touched the snow, Shina paused and looked down, and she shuffled her right foot back and forth just to hear the slushy sound she made. Then she kneeled down and touched the snow between her fingertips, a chill sharply going through her muscles that makes her pull back and giggle. She then stood up a little and looked at her sneakers, lifting a foot up and moving her hand to slowly slip the shoe off, only for Bentley to suddenly call out to her.

"Something bothering you Shina?!" Shina held her leg up for a little as she glanced at Bentley, who was looking at her while swinging his sword out to smack a giant blue lumberjack Rhynoc holding a torch right off the nearby ledge. Losing focus for a second causes her to drop her sock covered foot onto the ground, the mushy chill making her leap back as some of the snow sticks to her sock, forcing her to shake it off and hastily put her shoe back on while shaking her head.

"I-I'm coming, sorry!" Shina hastily caught up with Bentley while collecting any gems he found along the away, and with a smile she thought to herself _"Can't wait to tell sis about snow!"_ Once at the edge of the cliff they were stopped by a gap to the other side of the area. With a grin Shina played with the thought of carrying the two yetis over, but instead watched as the brothers were ready to work together to solve their problem.

"We should be able to cave the roof in if you use your spin move to deflect a snowball over to the gong." Bartholomew suggested, and Bentley rubbed his chin and said "A snowball's throw away, eh? What a wondrous idea!" Shina suddenly perked forward and waved her right hand out, teetering on the edge of the floor. Both yetis look at Shina and her rather brash enthusiasm, with Bentley gently tugging on her arm to make sure she doesn't fall off.

"Do you have a suggestion lass?" Bentley asked, and while slowly rubbing the side of her right cheek with a finger she glanced aside and said "I-I just wanted to throw my first snowball, if that's ok…?" Her voice was meek and embarrassed, but Bentley just smiled at her and held his hand out.

"You're more than welcome to try. Just aim for my club and give it your best throw!" Bentley then walked into position at the edge of the cliff, while Shina leaped and threw her fist into the air while letting out an excited cheer, but as she landed she noticed Bartholomew hanging his head a little. After a few seconds of looking the little yeti in the eyes, Shina clenched a hand against her chest and said in a relaxed tone "Actually, there's plenty of snow, I can wait. It's all yours Bart!"

Though the nickname threw him off, the little yeti was elated to be able to play snowball with his brother and after a merry leap he yelled "Thank you!" and then scooped up a snowball into his right hand while Shina watched him from behind. As Bentley holds his club in front of him and spins it around, Bartholomew threw the snowball delicately, where it hit the club and was sent flying towards the golden gong. It made a loud echo in the area and shook the clumped snow on the ceiling, making it fall down and creating a bridge to the other side.

"Hooray! Way to go bro!" Bartholomew said before enthusiastically trotting over to the other side, and Bentley and Shina go across to find a Dragon Egg waiting for them there. Shina smiled and approached the egg, and it reacted to her presence and began to shake. Once it hatched, a small grey baby dragon with mini blue wings shook a bit of snow off of itself. Shina bent down and petted the dragon's head, and it felt a bit warmer from that before it was warped away to safety.

"It will be quite the delight if we can stop the Sorceress from getting all these youthful dragons." Bentley commented after witnessing that magical birth unfold, and as Shina stood up she looked over her shoulder and said proudly "Spyro's working really hard, and rest assured nothing's going to stop him from saving the day!"

"Our assistance absolutely affects his progression too." Bentley stated, with Shina nodding her head before Bartholomew suddenly screeched "Ah nooooo!" and the two ran ahead right as he got smacked right in the face by a giant snowball. He is flung into a nearby wall and left dazed while Bentley gave his concerns.

"What appears to be the problem here?" He inquired as Bartholomew came to his senses and leaped a few times, pointing his left hand out to the distance. "It's the seals I tried to train! They've gone maaaad!" Looking out past the edge of the cliff, there were a couple pillars suspended in the air with large grey seals that wore spiked metal collars and balanced large snowballs on their noses.

"Bartholomew, you forgot to give them their daily serving of seafood, didn't you?"

"O-Of course not! I-I think the Sorceress just offered them a better cut of the gib! You should take these traitors out before they take over our home!" Bartholomew hastily said, while Shina looked at the seals barking and slapping their flippers together playfully, and with her eyes sparkling she laid a hand against her chin and commented "Yeah they'll conquer you both with their deadly balancing skills. We should probably panic and call Spyro before it's too late."

"Just take care of them! They have become pure EVIL!" Bartholomew said in a flustered tone before hiding behind Bentley, who spun his club out to deflect another snowball tossed at him. "Well you are sorely mistaken if you think I will allow any ornery warm-blooded mammals to lay a hand on my brother! Give me just a moment or two to line myself up." Then he walks to the edge of the cliff and waits to reflect another snowball with his spinning club. Shina meanwhile shrugs and moves on ahead to get in front of another seal with plans of her own to deal with it.

Kneeling down, Shina holds her right hand up and creates a baseball mitt from her aura, patting it a couple times while thinking _"I think this is how they do it…"_ When the seal throws the snowball, Shina is only pushed back an inch once she catches it in her glove. Then she stands up and pulls back, covering her other hand in a glove to hold onto the snowball before she lines her shot up and throws it straight forward. The seal widened it's eyes before it was knocked right off the pillar, falling into the chilly abyss while Shina feels both pride and regret, and after pumping her fist she leans out past the edge of the cliff.

"Sorry! I hope you respawn after I leave the area!" She then quickly took the gem the seal left behind and collected whatever else was in the area into her growing sphere of aura. Bentley and her deal with a couple more seals before coming across another gap with a gong on the other side. Again Bartholomew is allowed to throw the snowball for his brother, and once it hits the gong a MUCH larger snowball comes rolling down the top of the nearby caverns and slams down into the gap to fill the space up.

On the other side was a massive iron crate, but Bentley stuck his club into the ground and rubbed his hands together before saying excitedly "Allow me!" He then went to the side of the crate and pressed his shoulder against it, with ease moving it along the ground until he had thrown it right off the side of the cliff. Shina cupped her hands around her mouth and said energetically "Ding ding! Skill Point!"

The two yetis look at Shina, with Bentley expressing in a very frazzled tone "I-I beg your pardon Shina?" She laid a hand against her lips and giggled, choosing to keep the secret of her comment to herself, instead pointing ahead and commenting "Hey, there's another Dragon Egg over there!" before she ran over to said egg past the snowy white arched tunnel.

When this egg hatched in Shina's presence, a green dragon wearing sunglasses suddenly started doing a funky backwards step while looking at the ground, and then he gesturrf towards Shina before being sent away. _"Those sunglasses were so adorable on him…!"_ Shina said with a blush in her cheeks that left once Bentley approached her, and the two noticed that the way ahead was blocked off by a lack of platforms between the steps and the elevated platform. Thankfully, there were two more metal crates in the area.

"We're almost there bro! One last obstacle and I'm home!" Bartholomew happily proclaimed, and Bentley put his club back down and said "Give me just one minute. Shina, if you would be so kind to assist." Shina smiled and nodded her head before going to one crate as Bentley covered the other. Shina rested her back against the crate and pushed it, moving it along with relative ease until both crates were lined up to create a bridge close enough for even the bulky yetis to cross.

Shina backflipped onto the ledge as Bentley and Bartholomew crossed to the other side, where their warm stone abode awaited them in a secluded area, the door casting an orange light into the area that melted enough of the snow to reveal grass. Bartholomew let out a sigh of relief and turned around with his back to the door.

"Thanks bro! Oh yeah, I found something for your rock collection while you were captured! Give me a moment to get it! It's a real beauty!" Bartholomew ran into the house, and while he was doing that Shina turned to Bentley and said "I guess things will quiet down here now, huh?"

"I do certainly believe it will. Now as promised, I shall do whatever I can to help Spyro's cause." Bentley laid his hand out against his chest, and with a bright smile Shina proclaimed "I'll look forward to it Mr. Bentley! I-I'm sorry for spacing out a little, I'm just experiencing so many things for the first time today!"

"Ah, the joys of a mind's youthful curiosity. Do not be afraid to embrace that feeling for all it's worth Shina…None of us are young forever." With her eyes shut and a grin as wide as her face Shina replied to those words of wisdom with "Hehe, you should meet my mother sometime!" Afterwards, Bartholomew walked out of the house with what was clearly a Dragon Egg in his right hand.

"Here you go bro! It's a little heavy, but look at it's rugged texture!" The little yeti was then forced to watch as in the presence of Shina and Bentley the egg hatched open, and a little dragon did a backflip on Bartholomew's palm before being sent away. The yeti froze in place for two seconds before falling backwards with a heavy thud, his eyes wide open and his body left stiff.

"Oh dear…I will have to amend that vow. First I shall get my brother to his bed." Bentley hauls Bartholomew over his right shoulder, and as the yeti made his way into the house Shina commented "That's ok, I still need to get some gems around here! See you later Mr. Bentley!" She waved him off as the door to the house shut, and after turning around she pumped her fist before her chest.

"Alright, lets finish this up!" And for the next few minutes, Shina merrily cleaned the rest of the outpost of it's gems and remaining Rhynocs and seals. Her aura sphere was even bigger than the snowball that filled the second gap by the time she was done, but she took a moment to count to make sure she has 600 in total value before making her way back to Bentley's house. There she found a runic arch housing a portal leading back to Evening Lake.

"I hope Alex is having some fun with Spyro, hehe!" She said before leaping into the portal, carrying the gems behind her by converting the sphere into a tube, and back at the Evening Lake she would hope to quickly catch up with the others…

 _Next Time: The Treasure Hunt in the Sunken Ship_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Longing at the Lost Fleet**

As Shina had fun with Bentley, Alex and Spyro had made their way to the portal to the Lost Fleet. The dragon glided through the sunset skies, with a moon lingering in the air behind them as they made their way towards the floating islands in the distance. Spyro was able to keep a steady glide going while Alex laid forward, quietly examining the world around him. He looked back as the Evening Lake disappeared from sight, and it didn't take long before he was thinking of Shina.

" _Shina, I don't get what you're doing. I'd rather we stick together than be apart like this, but it almost feels like you are too distracted by this video game world."_ Alex groans a little after remembering how excited she was to be in the presence of the portal to Fireworks Factory, with her happy rambling repeating in his head a couple times. He then looked to Spyro and frowned a bit, his heart suddenly feel some weight on it.

" _Then again, I'm looking at one of my childhood heroes and I don't feel anything. I remember my surprise and joy from meeting Mario_ _for the first time, and the amazement from seeing his world and all it's wonders."_ Alex then closed his eyes a little and tried to work his mind to recall some of the things from Spyro's world, specifically drawing on memories of the Lost Fleet. All it got out of Alex though was a twinge of fondness, and the same weight was on his heart.

" _When did I stop being idealistic?"_ Again Shina's happy ramblings repeated in his mind, but Alex saw them in a different light than before.

" _She's older than me, but she's still as peppy and idealistic as a child. If age can't get rid of that attitude, then what's wrong with me?"_ Alex would finally have to get off that train of thought as gravity took hold and pulled him and Spyro to the floating island, with the dragon landing on his feet while Alex falls flat onto his stomach against the ground, causing him to let out a surprise cough. Spyro immediately glanced at him.

"Oooo, rough landing. You alright?" Alex lays his hands against the ground and pushes himself up with a disgruntled look in his eyes, murmuring to himself "Next time, keep my body upright…" As Alex brushed the dirt off his body Spyro looked ahead of him to survey the land. He saw a few broken ships scattered around the area positioned in different ways, and there were some black vultures and big bubble-eyed crabs wandering the area. The thing that grabbed Spyro's attention the most though were the boiling ponds of green acid around the ships.

"Urgh, guess we should've seen this coming eventually Sparx. Oh well, better acid than lava." Spyro said with a slightly bothered tone, but then his attention was grabbed by an odd grey furred man with foggy glasses, a cowboy hat and suit, and a pickaxe in his right hand.

"Howdy pardners! I reckon you be here for that treasure in the sunken ship, but dere be more ghosts in dis here shipyard den I can shake me pick at!" The man said in a rather bizarre tone of voice, and Spyro and Alex both raised their brows while the dragon commented "Uh…huh? And just what exactly are you telling us this…"

The strange man turned around and ran off, and Spyro tilted his head slightly and finished with a drawn out "…for?" He then shook his head a little while Alex commented dryly "People here seem to have trouble introducing themselves."

"Oh well, at least that treasure sounds worth checking out. Wonder what ship it's in?" Spyro looked around, while Alex focused his glare on the one ship with a hole in the side of it.

" _Can get this over with quickly, but then…"_ Alex watches as Spyro charges forward and breaks apart a crab with his horns to reveal a gem, and with a sigh he finished _"There's still the matter of that. I swear, we better get some information on the Cosmos Drive out of this Shina."_ And after that Alex decides to keep up with Spyro as he starts going through the area, using a spurt of flames from his mouth when he comes in contact with the 'ghosts', which are just short-wearing blue Rhynocs with a bed sheet on their bodies that burns away from the flames. Then Spyro chases down the Rhynocs and knocks them away with a charge.

A couple Rhynocs try to sneak up on Alex, but he just gives them a backhanded punch that knocks them into the burning acid. He then casually swings his hand out to throw a gem towards Sparx so he can collect it. Then the trio had to pause because a large wooden wall was blocking the way, though Spyro looked to the left and saw a cannon platform on the ground that he leapt right onto and placed his mouth close to the end of the cannon so he could breathe fire into it.

Alex stood aside and closed his eyes partially while Spyro positioned the cannon towards the wall, breathing fire to send a cannon ball through the air but just missing the wall. Devoid of any other ways to start a conversation, Alex offered quietly "I can redirect the cannonballs if you want." But the bang of another cannonball fired drowned his voice out so much that Spyro had to raise his head and ask "What was that?"

Glancing down Alex sighed and said "Never mind, try one more shot." Spyro looked back down and one more cannonball was fired from the barrel, flying in a perfect arc until it blew apart the wall with a thunderous crack reminiscent of dynamite echoing through the air. Spyro held a wing up to block the tinier debris, while Alex just let them hit his face with his reaction being a mildly peeved grimace. Spyro then leaped off the cannon and kept moving on, with Sparx picking up whatever Gems he noticed along the way.

Alex had to pick up the pace to keep up with the spunky dragon as he got inside the lopsided desolated ship and transitioned to another part of the world, where a river of acid poured out of a gruesome set of boney fangs lodged into a nearby wall. _"There's a portal up there on a ledge, but I can't tell Spyro about that now. If Shina was here she'd just blurt it out right away."_ While continuing to follow Spyro, Alex clears his throat with a light cough and then tries to imitate Shina's voice with his eyes closed.

"Oh Spyro, there's something neato up there! We should totes go there!" While he exaggerated her behavior a bit, the voice was frighteningly spot-on, though that led to a little lumpy liquid rising up Alex's throat, and he thrust his head forward slightly before he quickly used his powers to force the stuff down. While rubbing his throat, he paused and looked ahead to see that Spyro had already crossed a gap and turned around while giving him a weird glare.

"Uh, what was that?" He inquired, and after recognizing he probably should've lowered his volume Alex glanced aside with a blush in his cheeks and worked his mind to the limit to go through hundreds of possible ways to sway the conversation. He looks down into the gap by pure chance and notices some stuff down there, and while still blushing he points down and rapidly states "You forgot some gems!"

Spyro stood with claws dug over the edge of the tunnel and hung his head down, commenting with slight humor as he looked back up "I really should know better by now, thanks though." As Spyro leaped down to collect what he missed Sparx buzzed at him in a sarcastic manner, leading the dragon to reply while he climbed up the nearby steps "No Sparx, I haven't forgotten Beast Makers."

Once the dragon was near Alex, he asked in a fascinated tone "How'd you notice the gems?" Alex had to hide his knowledge behind a logical response and while looking away he murmured "Oh…you know…I can sense the gems. It's part of my powers."

"Well that'll be useful. Sparx forgot how to do that." Sparx buzzed as his friend casually brought that up, but Spyro looked at him and mentioned "I'm not putting you down buddy, you took a bad blow to the noggin coming to the Forgotten Realms." Alex didn't make any comment and just closed his eyes partway until Spyro was ready to continue on past the gap, the lip of the tunnel entrance lined with a large pair of fanged bones. Being this close to the bones, Alex shivered a little and wondered what kind of monsters inhabited this perilous graveyard.

Fortunately there were none of those bones in the next part of the area, as the three were now on the other side of the first broken ship they saw, with an easily breakable piece of wood being the last obstacle in the way besides the Rhynocs. Alex stood patiently by as Spyro used the cannon to blow up the wall in one shot, and after cleaning out the area of gems the two leaped into the ship and found that odd man from before standing next to a wooden chest with a lock already lying on the ground.

"Well ya finally caught up! Took longer than a horse ride through the prairie, but I got dis here lock picked right off…Unfortunately someone nabbed my booty and stuck this doggone Dragon Egg in here." The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a Dragon Egg that really shouldn't have fit in there, handing it off to Spyro as a portal back to Evening Lake rises up to the left of the man. The baby dragon that hatched from this egg panted and wagged his tail before letting out a jolly bark as he's warped away.

"Well thanks for the Dragon Egg, but how-" Spyro watched as the person ran right into the portal, and with a brow raised the dragon just shook his head and sighed. Alex folded his arms together and remarked dryly "There's still some more Eggs and Gems to find right?" Spyro nodded his head and began to check the room to the right of the portal out of here, and after charging through a crab near an acid pool the trio heard a few vulture shrieks coming from outside along with some faint feminine "pews".

Alex groaned a bit and then looked out the nearby hole, where he saw Shina down there with a finger pointed towards the sky, and she fired shots of aura at the vultures to get them to drop gems that she stuffs into her large aura sphere. She quickly lowers her head as one more gem falls into the sphere, and with a hand raised above her head she perkily said "Hey Alex, hey Spyro! I cleaned up Bentley's Outpost and he agreed to help us out!"

"Looks like you got a lot of gems from there. Sparx, go clean them up real quick." Spyro nudged his head towards the dragonfly, and he flew down as Shina opened a hole in the sphere so every gems could be quickly collected. Then she spun her fingers around to make the remaining aura twirl around Sparx as the dragonfly fluttered into the air and then did a cheerful backflip. Shina chuckled and then ran forward, leaping up and performing a flip before landing in front of Alex and proudly holding her arms out above her head.

Alex raised a brow as she looked at him with a smile, expecting a response. But after a few seconds of silence she just grinned and lowered her arms behind her back, followed by her mentioning to Spyro "Oh yeah, I found an Egg when I got here. It was on the cliff to the left of the ship's bow!" This immediately got Alex to widen his eyes and give Shina a rather peeved glare, something she didn't notice for a bit as she only had eyes on the dragon.

"Cool! Then that leaves about four more around here." Spyro replied, and Shina suggested merrily "Have ya tried the top of the ship?" And Spyro looked to the left and saw a whirling tornado of magical energies that led out of the ship and shook his head a little before entering said tornado. His limbs spread out and he was sent rising up while swirling around, but before Shina turned and pursued Alex gently thrust his right fist into the side of her arm to get her attention.

As Shina looked at him with a curious glance over her shoulder Alex pulled back and folded his arms to give her the same glare as before, only a little more annoyed as she bluntly but quietly said "What ARE you doing? You had to have used your powers to get that Egg." Shina turned around the rest of the way and with a slight glance aside she replied in a puzzled tone "Uh…yeah? Something wrong with that?"

"If we're doing this we shouldn't be jumping through hoops like that. What about all the gems in the acid river?"

"I got them with my aura too. I don't get it, I thought ya wanted this to go by quickly?" Hearing that from Shina, even with her slightly smart-aleck tone, eased Alex's tense muscles and got him to close his eyes and comment with a hesitant grimace while some sweat started to form on the sides of his face "W-Well…I'm sorry for assuming you were not taking this seriously."

"Oh I'd say I'm being half-and-half serious and lax on this world. You CAN have fun while taking care of things quickly, you just got to learn to have a little fun with your powers Alex." To Alex's surprise, Shina suddenly leaned forward with sparkles in her eyes and said encouragingly "You got seven elements at your disposal! You can do some AMAZING things with them if you put your mind to it!"

Alex pulled back a little due to Shina getting a little too close to his personal space, and with his heart racing he quickly stuttered "W-Whatever! Spyro's going to wonder where we are if we stick around longer!" He then further dodged the subject by leaping over Shina and entering the magic whirlwind, though he doesn't become one with it and his whole body spins around wildly until he's flung out on top of the ship, smashing against one of the masts so hard that Shina winces when she heard it, followed by her laying some fingers against her bottom lip and smiling.

"Oh Alex, you'll get it someday, I have faith in ya." Shina then chuckled and gallantly leaped into the whirlwind, twirling in a pirouette like a ballerina until she gently lands at the top of the ship, where Alex has already gotten back onto his feet with only a bruise to his forehead. He glances away from Shina with a blush on his face but happens to notice Spyro standing at the edge of the ship as he was looking out towards the river of acid, where there lied a portal of swirling energy on a ledge within the boney mouth.

"I'm going to glide over, see if there might be another Egg or two in that portal." Spyro said before make a short leap off the ground and spreading his wings to head on over. Shina leaped onto the edge of the ship and after waving towards herself to give him the hint Alex followed her in gliding over to the portal alongside Spyro. It was a simple glide with no mistakes made, and upon entering the portal the four ended up walking through a corridor of darkness before ending up in some sort of cavern with two noticeable things.

One was a blue steel submarine half submerged in acid, and the other was the fact that the man Spyro and Alex saw leave to Evening Lake was standing right there. Even Spyro let out an audible "What?!" upon seeing that man and walked up to him, asking in a puzzled tone "Didn't we just see you?"

"The Rhynocs have taken over this acid pool in their dadgum submarines! I can't take a dip in acid again until they are cleared out." The man calmly said, and Alex murmured "I think you've been dipping in plenty of acid" which ended up earning a chuckle from Shina even if she was hesitant to do so at first.

"If you use the submarine, you can take out all dem Rhynocs! I might even have a Dragon Egg for ya!" When the man was done talking Spyro looked to Sparx and commented "Well, can't question that. Lets go bust some subs!" Spyro then walked forward and leaped into the open sub, which caused the lid to seal tight on it's own as the sub dove into the acid.

Shina clapped her hands together and summoned a veil of aura around her body before saying "This'll make a great story for sis! How many people can tell tales of how they swam in acid?!" Alex widened his eyes as Shina bravely dove into the acid pool after a couple flips in mid-air, letting out a "Yippie!" before Alex can stop her from going in. Alex's hand was held out for a few seconds until he saw a couple of pointed pillars to the right that had a veil of magic between them and a floating shield icon.

"Well, I guess I should go after them." Alex walks through the veil, but doesn't feel anything happen to him. After a couple puzzled blinks he turns around and runs through the veil again, still nothing. He does it a couple more times until frustration grasps his mind and he folds his arms together, closing his eyes and grunting.

" _Ok, so I guess only dragons can use that. Fine, I guess I'll just wait."_ Alex then plopped right down onto the ground and crossed his legs while tapping his fingers on his arms for a few minutes until both Spyro and Shina returned to the surface of the pool, with Shina having carried a bunch of gems out with her in another aura sphere. Sparx collects those once he's out of the sub, while Spyro walks up to the strange man and nonchalantly remarked "Well, they're all done for. Now, I believe you said something about an Egg?"

"Way to go on dealing with the first wave! You sent them scurrying faster than a hungry cowboy towards a buffet! Here's the first egg, and I reckon you could earn another if you went back and dealt with the next wave!" The strange man reached into the same pocket as before and pulled out another egg to give to Spyro, and the egg hatched into a baby dragon that did a couple backflips while standing on it's hands before being sent away.

Spyro then gave the man a long hard glare before shaking his head and remarking after a sigh "…Alright Sparx, guess we'll take care of this. Shina, thanks for getting the gems, you can stay out if you want." Shina dropped her aura veil and said happily "Alrighty! Good luck down there! Those Rhynocs will be onto ya tricks!"

After Spyro got back into the sub and left, Shina gleamed back at Alex and said "So why didn't you try and go into-"

"I don't want to talk about it!" Alex firmly answered to get the subject dropped, and Shina just shrugged her shoulders and sat herself down waiting for Spyro. It didn't take long for him to come back and walk up to the strange man one more time, who said in a jollier tone "Well howdy dowdy! Now I can go acid dipping anytime I want! Thanks a lot dere Spyro!" Once again the man pulls the egg from the very same pocket, but this time it's the matter of bringing up Spyro's name that makes the young dragon lose his patience.

"Ok look buddy, you can't just-" Then the Dragon Egg hatches in front of Spyro, with the baby standing on it's hindlegs and swinging it's front claws out as though it wanted no fighting to happen, and Spyro closed his eyes before letting out a sigh as the dragon was carried away. "Never mind, we're done in this part." He dryly said before making his way to the portal out of there, and once he was out of sight Shina stood up and waved goodbye to the man.

"See ya later Crazy Ed!" She casually proclaimed before going through the portal with Alex, and the man just scratched the side of his head and commented "Now how did dem youngsters know my name before I said it? That's just crazy!" Now that they got two eggs, that left two more somewhere else, but Shina discarded all subtlety and with a wave of her arm out she made a bridge of aura that curved out of exit of the cavern and attached to a ledge Spyro hadn't touched down on.

"We should try our luck thaaaat-a way!" Shina said while brandishing a finger forward, with Spyro commenting after "Sounds like a plan. Can't be too much left to this place." Spyro then charged forward across the path, making the sharp turn towards the ledge with Shina and a once more glaring Alex following. On the other side of the path there was another portal to the right at the end of a hill, tucked carefully behind the side of a larger one. After Shina removed the aura path the four went to the portal and ended up in the last unexplored part of the Lost Fleet.

On an expanse of dirt between two rough hills were some Rhynocs with kneepads and helmets riding atop boards with wheels on them. On the other side of the area, leaning against a wall, was a cartoon-y cheetah standing on two legs with a skateboard held up by his right paw and a pair of purple boxers around his waist. Once he looks ahead with his bright blue eyes and sees Spyro, he lets out a "Hey, Spyro!" in a cheerful voice, with him having a slight surfer dude accent as he spoke.

"Hunter?" Spyro remarked in a puzzled tone before he walked over to him, narrowly avoiding the Rhynocs that tried to run him over. Alex and Shina catch up a little later, with Alex tripping a Rhynoc off his skateboard when he tries to be a wise guy.

"What are you doing here?" Spyro inquired, and Hunter swung his left paw and said "Zoe told me that these Rhynocs here are holding a skateboarding contest with a Dragon Egg on the line. I was going to enter, but my ankle broke on the way over. But hey, now that you're here Spyro, you can enter! …By the way, who're the new guys?" Hunter looks up at Shina and Alex, and Shina quickly takes her hands out and shakes Hunter's left paw rapidly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Hunter! My name is Shina! The quiet grumpy gus behind me is Alex." Shina nudged her head to the left, with Alex scowling a bit before he closed his eyes and tried to take in a deep breath, managing at least a semi-respectable if not ignorant feigning tone as he said "So you said there's a Dragon Egg on the line? I guess we'll have to leave this up to Sp-"

"Say Hunter, can Alex and I join the race too?" Shina casually inquired while standing back a bit, and the cheetah glanced aside while Alex clenched his teeth mid-sentence and said "Shina you better not be sugges-"

"Well…Spyro alone would give us a 1 in 6 chance of victory. If we added you two, it'd triple our chances!" Hunter stated happily, and Alex desperately exclaimed "Don't encourage her!" while Shina just clapped her hands together and let out a merry cheer.

"Yay! I'll get to skateboard for the first time! Aren't you excited Alex?" Shina asked while looking back, meeting the very burning glare from Alex's eyes as she growled out a reply of "You signed me up for this against my will."

"Have you ever used a skateboard before?" Shina kindly asked, and Alex widened his eyes a little and stuttered "N-No! But that's not the poi-"

"Then you get to try something new out! Come on Alex, it'll be fun! Spyro's likely going to win anyways!" Shina stated, with Hunter pointing out a moment after "The race starts in a minute, so you got here just in time. If you want a skateboard, get one from that magic whatchamacallit over there." Hunter gestured to a small light on the ground that projected a hologram of a skateboard. Shina walked over to it and ended up with a yellow and blue skateboard in her right hand.

"Awww, it's perfect!" She gave it a hug while Spyro walked up to the hologram and end up having two feet onto a purple and yellow skateboard with the yellow represented as a lightning bolt, and finally after resisting the urge to scream buried deep in his mind Alex walked off to the hologram and got a red and blue skateboard wrapped in his arms. As he held it, a motherly voice quietly echoed in his mind _"It's for you my son, happy birthday!"_ and showed him something that could never, ever be.

Alex tensed up and hung his head, not realizing he was going to break the skateboard in his grip until Shina turned around and said in a humored tone "Well don't go busting it up now! The race is starting!" Alex lifted his head up and saw as Shina placed her skateboard down and lined it up alongside the Rhynocs and Spyro, testing the way she needed to stand on it before putting a foot on the ground so he could start. After shaking off what was once on his mind, Alex chose to get this over with and positioned himself to the left of Shina, copying her posture since she seemed to have somewhat of an idea how to ride this.

The race began rather suddenly with a loud bang from nowhere, and the Rhynocs and Spyro easily skated up the hill in front of them. Alex had to kick his feet a few times rapidly to get up to the hill, while Shina used a little too much strength and went flying off the top of it, tumbling onto her gut as the skateboard glided beside her. Alex had already passed by as she fell and didn't notice, leaving her to just chuckle and murmur "Well I guess that's not how you do it" as she gets up and tries again.

Meanwhile, Alex keeps kicking his foot against the ground and steering, catching up with the Rhynocs after not too long. _"Huh, this isn't too hard. Guess at least I can expect a smooth-"_ A Rhynoc then laughs and grabs his attention right as the monster rammed him hard enough to knock him off the skateboard and have him eat dirt for a few seconds. The Rhynoc continued to laugh as it turned back and pointed at him, but Alex just looked up with a fierce glare and scowl.

"So you want to play dirty? Fine…!" Alex dug his fingers into the dirt and then pushed himself onto his feet to get on the skateboard. After a few seconds of kicking his feet against the ground a few times he thinks _"This board is made of metal, so that means…"_ and then focused his powers on the wheels of the skateboard before standing upright and folding his arms. He then left his control of the skateboard to his powers, traveling at a much faster speed than before and having such an iron stance that when the Rhynoc tried to knock him off he was the one who instead got knocked down.

Alex then just kept riding on the track, eventually even bypassing Spyro despite the dragon using the turbo feature on his skateboard. He had cleared the first lap quickly and ended up passing Shina as she had barely gotten very far due to falling off a few times, but Alex just decided to let her keep at that while he used his speed to win the race after a minute or so. Hunter widened his eyes as Alex stopped the skateboard in front of him and said bluntly "There, three laps. That's a victory."

"Well…Yeah, we only need to worry about first place here. Congratulations dude! I've never seen anyone go that fast on a skateboard before! You schooled those Rhynocs like a bunch of dizzy, one-tied sand gnorcs! And you got us a Dragon Egg out of the deal. Here, I'll go get it!" Hunter then dropped his board and ran over to a winner's stand that an egg was on top of, picking it up and bringing it over to Alex, but was intercepted by the Rhynocs that had just gotten back there and started shaking their fists at the cheetah.

Alex was ready to attack them when Spyro leaped off his skateboard and charged through the Rhynocs to knock them away, glancing at Hunter and saying "We should've just done this in the first place" before the cheetah shrugs and says while putting the egg down "I thought it was a lot of fun…For how short it was." As the Egg hatched into a baby dragon that burped up a butterfly Spyro glanced aside at Alex, who had already thrown away the skateboard and casually looked away.

"Hey Spyro, since we got the track all to ourselves now, how about a race between the two of us? Huuuuuuh?" Hunter nudges his shoulder a little, and Spyro said "Sure, I can do that. Lets go a round!" Alex widened his eyes again, but after letting in a gasp of air he just sighed and gave up. Spyro and Hunter went on to have their race while Alex went off to the side and looked back and forth wondering where Shina had ended up. Not long afterwards, Alex watches as Shina slides down the hill to the right and then leaps off the board, stepping on the tail end to flip it into her hand.

She then walked out to Alex and stood beside him, with a smile remarking "So you won the race huh? Didn't know you were secretly an expert skaters, heehee…" Alex didn't say anything at first until she went on to mention in a light-hearted tone "Did you at least try before using your powers?"

"There's no point anyways, I'm never going to need to skate, and neither do you really."

"Well if that ain't a pessimistic attitude I don't know what is. Just because we can fly doesn't stop us from trying other modes of transportation." Shina commented, while Alex just closed his eyes and groaned.

"I mean fine, you cleverly used your powers, but don't you feel just a liiiiiittle sad for not learning how to skate on your own? Just cause ya fall down and eat ground doesn't mean you can't get back up again." Alex glanced at Shina with one eye open and noticed a little bit of dirt on her shirt and pants, then he closed his eye back up and stated firmly but quietly "Just drop it, ok?" Shina let out a sigh and chose to respect his wishes, saying nothing else as Spyro finished up his race with Hunter soon enough.

When the race was over, Hunter gave Spyro another Egg he found on the track, and the two parted with friendly words. After going through the portal, the four grabbed the remaining gems in the Lost Fleet, then returned to the portal in the ship to make their way back to Evening Lake, having cleared the place of everything they needed…

 _Next Time: The Buzz of the Bees_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Havoc in the Honey Speedway**

Returning to the welcoming magic waters of the Evening Lake, the group wonders what their next destination could be. Spyro kneaded his claws in the water to remain stationary while swinging his head around.

"So there's three other worlds and one speedway around here somewhere. Did you guys happen to catch all of the portals?" Spyro looked back to Alex and Shina for answers, and Shina was all too happy to say while gliding a pointer finger out in front of her "There's one in that tunnel, one far north, one on that there tower, and one directly across from that."

"Huh, alright, maybe we should try one of them near the tower." Spyro suggested with his curious eyes gazing towards that way, but as Alex nodded his head in agreement Shina leaned her lips close to his ear and whispered longingly "Oooooor maybe the Fireworks Faaaa-"

"No." He replied bluntly, and Shina's voice trailed off into a prolonged "Aw" of disappointment as she slowly pulled her head back and watched as Spyro began to swim towards the Charmed Ridge portal, stopping and paddling on the bridge between that and a small room containing a beehive with a portal on it's entrance. After Alex and Shina had caught up, Spyro approached that portal and the name 'Honey Speedway' appeared in front of it.

"You know, a speedway doesn't sound so bad right now. See you guys in there!" Spyro then charged towards the portal, his body vanishing from sight not long after he began to fly, and as Alex wonders out loud "How will this even work with the three of us?" Shina had already flown into the portal, leaving Alex looking shocked before he quickly followed.

The portal took the group through some rather bizarre murky green skies with a few streaks of foggy clouds, sending them towards a neat floating island with a temple in the center, a few hollowed out hives hanging from the limp swampy trees, and a flowing river made of honey. There were some large flowers positioned near the temple, and that's where the portal's manual flight directed the group towards. Despite all appearances, the flower was as stable as a hardwood floor, with the petals only bending slightly.

Once they had arrived to the speedway, the immediate thing that caught their attention were the pudgy bees as big as Spyro himself flying around. Only a couple of them were yellow, the rest shared all the other colors of the rainbow save for purple. When one bee got close enough, Sparx parted from the group and got in his way. Thankfully, the bee seemed to be a friendly one, as him and Sparx shared a brief conversation with merry buzzes until both nodded their head and parted ways. The dragonfly then came back and floated in front of Spyro, ready to deliver his news.

A few merry buzzes filled the air, with Alex furrowing his brow as even now the words of the dragonfly were unintelligible. Spyro nodded his head and let out a few "Uh-huhs" and a couple "Mmmms" before Shina finally interjected and said with her usual giggle "We don't know what's going on."

"Oh sorry about that." Spyro quickly said with a glance back, his tone suggesting he had briefly forgotten their presence. He then made up for that by telling them "Sparx said there's two events going on here. A race and a flying course. Same thing as the other two we've been to."

"Mind explaining the events?" Alex said to feign ignorance, and the dragon shrugged and said "Sure…I guess? The bees have a race starting soon. If one of us joined it'd be a six person race. Three laps, winner likely gets a Dragon Egg. The flying course…Uhhh…"

He looked back at Sparx and asked after a chuckle "What'd you say was on it?" After a few buzzes Spyro nodded and then remarked "Drone bees, hives, floating honeycombs and bears in boats. Eight of each of them. You're supposed to take them out in a time limit, the prize is another Dragon Egg."

"So we can get two eggs here…" Alex commented before Spyro interjected "Three actually. Hunter's usually around these places, blabbing on about some sheep aliens or whatever, but he's managed to get us an egg every time we've found him." After a slight pause Sparx buzzed in an annoyed tone at Spyro.

"Yes yes Sparx, 400 gems are on the course, I didn't forget." Spyro said while dryly nodding his head and then glancing at his friend. Shina, meanwhile, raised a finger before her chest and wagged it a little towards the others while stating in a sing-song tone "Three minutes, three persons, three eggs…"

"Huh?" The others said in a very puzzled manner, with Shina following up by retracting her hand close to her shoulder and closing her eyes to reply "We can get everyone done quickly if we each take a task…I call going to find Hunter!" She was very swift with her claim and took the hand beside her right above her head, and Alex immediately glanced at her.

"Any reason why?" He asked, and with a gentle smirk as she peered between her eyelids Shina replied "Cause I can find him easily with my powers? I mean, duh Alex!" Her voice carried a playfulness to it even as she not-so-subtly told Alex 'I'll have the most fun doing that!'. Alex closed his eyes and let out a sigh before he turned to Spyro and scratched the back of his head.

"So I can take the race, you can handle the flying course. Sound good?" Alex kept relatively quiet, only opening his eyes enough to confirm the nod of the dragon's head, but Shina quickly said "Alex, you already won a race, save some for the rest of us, hehe." Alex's eyes immediately widened as much as they could, both of them nearly bulging out of his sockets at her current act of impediment.

Before he got angered, Alex wiggled his right fingers around and then clenched it into a fist that he held against his hip as he said "Then that means I'm the BEST person for that task. But I get the feeling you have someth-"

"Well I mean it's not fair to the bees if you beat them easily." Shina's remark led to Alex swinging his arms into the air and turning around, grabbing the sides of his head in frustration as she closed her eyes and with a hand gestured out went on to say "They aren't Rhynocs, we should be good sports instead of cheating cheaters."

"They're BEES. They aren't going to be insulted if they lose a race!" Alex exclaimed, and after a pause Shina opened her eyes and heard the faint pants the boy was making and walked over to him. He was given a tap on his shoulder and glanced back, his eyes meeting the nice smile on her face as she leaned forward.

"Alex, I think you might be too competitive." She whispered, and with a blush amidst his cheeks Alex replied while turning a little "W-What? That's not true!" Standing upright, Shina lays a finger against her cheek and gives a nonchalance glance aside while letting out an almost silent hum.

"I could've swooooooooorn someone won a certain race even after we figured Spyro could handle it. Alas, I must be going blind at such an UNFAIRLY young age." Shina rested a hand against her chin and her tone was once again forcibly dramatic, and Alex quickly brandished a finger to poke Shina's forehead and make her open her eyes. The girl smiled warmly but Alex was having none of that as he said "Fine! I'll do the flying course."

Shina laid her hands together and let out a "Yay!" while Alex walked passed her and grumbled loud enough for her to hear "What are you anyways, a budding drama writer?" He then got in front of Spyro, who was patiently tapping his upper right claw until Alex spoke to him.

"Ok, I think I'll take the flying course. Lets not waste anymore time standing around." Alex said, and Spyro remarked sarcastically "Finally…Alright Sparx, let the bees know what we're doing." While he addressed the dragonfly, Shina leaped over him and floated off the edge of the flower, turning around and waving out to the others.

"See you guys later! I'll be back with Hunter's egg!" She then quickly sped off, with Spyro shaking his head and saying to Alex almost sympathetically "She's a lot to deal with, huh?"

"Everyone has their own Hunter, unfortunately…" Alex said with arms crossed and a sigh after, with Sparx coming back after having parted to talk to a bee. Alex was guided by an orange bee towards the southern part of the island, where some bees were setting up a series of honeycombs in a specific path. Spyro, who was allowed to fly indefinitely in this speedway, didn't have to go far to be positioned at the start of the racetrack, which was indicated by a red ring of energy. Five others bees were there waiting for things to start, and a lone bee hung above the ring with some lights dangling from it's feet.

Meanwhile, Shina flew across the island until she noticed Hunter leaning against the bottom of a hive while he peeked out towards something in the distance. With a smile on her face, she softly landed behind him and said "Hey Hunter!" ruining the whole point of the way she landed as Hunter leaped up with a prolonged yelp as if someone had stepped on his tail. He then turned around but had a goofy look on his face as Shina waved at her.

"Oh it's just you! For a second there, I thought you were a…Errr, never mind." Hunter quickly shook his head, but Shina said "Spyro told me you'd be around here! I thought I could help ya out!" Hunter's face immediately filled with excitement and he gestured his hands out.

"Really?! That's great! Right now I'm trying to swipe a Dragon Egg from this alien sheep before he can take off in his UFO." Shina is given a chance to check the alien out after Hunter gestures past the hive, and what Shina saw surprised her. A sheep, who was standing on two legs mind you, wore a blue leather space suit that fit his round fluffy body, and a glass helmet around his normal sheep head. Behind him was an aquamarine mechanical disc with an open glass dome and a jet on the back, and a Dragon Egg was on the ground before the strange machine.

As the sheep was currently drinking a milkshake, it was distracted from the Dragon Egg. Shina looks at Hunter and whispered "What's your plan?" The cheetah looked out and with his paw pointed at the alien he said "I'll sneak up behind the sheep and take the egg, then make a run for it. Maybe you can try and distract him?"

Shina nodded her head silently, and Hunter grinned before he immediately started to tip-toe over to the sheep UFO. He stretched his long legs out to cover the most distance possible, while Shina looked at the sheep and with a wiggle of her pointer finger as she mischievously smirked she made an aura finger that flicked the milkshake out of the sheep's hand. After he made a noise he bent over to pick it up, which gave Hunter the time to go for the egg, though he made the foolish mistake of giving a thumbs up once it was huddled under his left arm.

Shina shook her arms out multiple times, but the cheetah didn't get the hint and was too late to escape as the sheep turned around and let out an echoing "Baaaah!" before trying to lunge at Hunter. Hunter leaped out of the way but stumbled for a bit, followed by the sheep getting up and jumping into it's UFO, sealing himself inside and setting the engines to get him hovering. "Whooooaaaa!" Hunter exclaimed in surprise.

"Over here! You can make your getaway in this!" Shina proclaimed, directing Hunter to an aura boat she made in the water. Hunter leaped onto it as the sheep tried to ram him, and after placing the egg down Shina activates the "fan" and sends Hunter flying along the honey river. She follows behind him as the sheep busts out it's laser blaster and starts trying to fire at the cheetah, hoping to use her aura to deflect the shots away. Unfortunately, her efforts cause her to accidentally interfere with Spyro's race, as one of the shots hit the dragon and cause him to briefly tumble downward.

He shakes the impact off of his body and looks to the left to see what Hunter and Shina were up to, and while flying back up the track with a few flaps of his wings he commented dryly "Can't I just have one normal day?" He then flew through a red laser star and got a firework stuffed into his mouth for the trouble. A green bee zipped right past him, and Spyro tried to launch the firework his way. Instead, Alex accidentally intercepted it and the ensuing burst of sparks not only left him temporarily deafened, but sent him hurtling towards the honey river.

Spyro's face cringed as Alex smacked face first into the surface of the river, it's thickness throbbing his head upon impact and leaving him stationary enough that he began to sink into it nice and slow. The sweet and succulent gel wrapped around Alex's body, but instead of making him feel good he slowly opened his eyes and bitterly thought _"Maybe this is my karma…To drown in honey."_ He couldn't even hear his ensuing sigh as it was trapped in a thick bubble that slowly rose to the surface.

With no other choice, he tried to push himself slowly to the surface with air from his hands, but as he lifts his honey soaked head out he's rammed in the face by the bow of Shina's aura boat and forced back into the river. Hunter looks over the side of the boat as it rocks and said in a puzzled tone "I think I hit something…?" Shina takes a moment to close her eyes and focus on the river, grimacing as she feels Alex's presence.

"Errr…Y-You probably hit a rock?" Shina explained while forcing a smile and swiping her right arm out to deflect another laser blast. The UFO wasn't really relenting, but Shina didn't really want to just end the chase yet cause she was grinning from ear to ear at how fun it was.

"Aaaaaah! Mayday, mayday!" Hunter proclaimed, and Shina looked back and saw a bunch of bears riding motorboats approaching them. "Ah nuts!" Shina said with some nonchalance before quickly looking to the right, noticing Spyro about to fly through another red star. She swung her hand out and dragged the firework to her while the dragon gave her a slightly irritated glance. Shina spun her body and blocked a laser blast with a shield of aura while throwing the firework straight at all eight boats to break apart the boats and send the bears flying in all directions.

Some gems flew out, and Shina collected them in a sphere while a bear flew over his head and smashed through the UFOs glass. The sheep let out some "baaaas" as he was unable to control himself and his ship went hurtling straight down, blowing up in a bright explosion behind Shina and Hunter.

"Is it over?" The cheetah glanced back and then pumped his fist when he saw the smoking remains of the UFO.

"Wahoo! Now we can get the egg to Spyro!" Shina then let out a celebratory cheer but broke concentration, causing the boat to vanish and Hunter to get dropped into the honey, where he flails an arm around while holding the egg under his other. Shina stared at him for a bit and laid some fingers against her lips.

"Aw, nuts…!" Shina meekly said before going down to help Hunter out, taking him over to the flower Sparx was resting on. The egg and Hunter's legs were drenched in honey, but he just made the best of his situation by wiping some of the honey onto his paw and eating it.

"Mmmm, yummy! Here, try some!" Hunter held his paw out and Shina exclaimed "Sure!" before she ate some of the honey, with her mind taking her to a pink pastry paradise that drowned out everything else as she saw herself frolicking through this place while drenched in honey.

Spyro then came to the flower alongside a bee, who had a Dragon Egg in it's legs. It dropped it down on the flower and buzzed, with Spyro saying "Yeah, sorry for the interruptions, but at least you understand." The bee then left, and the dragon let out a sigh before looking at Hunter and the Egg on him.

"Do I want to ask?" He said hesitantly, but Hunter began to get into his story without prompt.

"Well there was this sheep UFO, and it went 'pew pew!' But then Shina here went-" Spyro completely ignored his story and turned to ask Shina "So where's Alex? I didn't see him after he fell into the river." There was some slight concern in his voice, and what he said snapped her back into reality.

"W-Well…" Shina scratched the side of her head and looked aside, but thankfully didn't have to stall as Alex showed up onto the flower with a Dragon Egg that he quickly dropped down. He stood between Spyro and Shina, his body drenched in water that he was drying off with his own projected heat, and with arms folded and eyes closed he didn't say a word. Spyro and Shina let out a little guilty sounding moan, and the group was distracted from all three Dragon Eggs hatching. The babies that come out make a small pyramid by standing on each other, and are teleported away.

"Errr…Everything alright Alex?' Shina tried to break the silence that pervaded the air for thirty seconds straight, but was only met with Alex replying in a guttural tone "Alright?" He then glanced fiercely at Spyro.

"First SOMEONE hit me with a firework and knocked me into the river…" Spyro scratched his head with the tip of right wing and said half-heartedly "Geez, sorry" while Alex then looked to Shina.

"Then SOMEONE smashed my face in with an aura boat…" Shina looked Alex in the eyes and mustered an innocent smirk while shrugging her hands up, but that was clearly not enough of an apology as Alex continued on with "Finally, I had to deal with the rest of the course while drenched in honey, which meant being chased by bees and being unable to fend them off because I didn't want to have the whole hive bothering us! Only AFTER I got the last of the gems and the egg was I able to clean myself. So, 'everything alright Alex'? Did you REALLY think that was the best thing to ask?"

Alex and Shina exchanged glares for a few more seconds until Hunter tried to defuse the situation by holding his honey-soaked paw out and asking "Want a taste?" Alex turned to Hunter, and something must've just blown in his head as his eyes became so red that he could've burned through steel at a moment's notice without using his powers. Before he acted on his feelings, Alex closed his eyes, grit his teeth and mumbled "Lets just go" as he kicked off the ground and took flight.

Hunter looked at Spyro and said in a dejected tone "I thought it'd help." But Spyro shook his head and remarked honestly "You tried Hunter, he just seems to have a lot on his mind. Well, I'll see you later!" His voice got more cheerful at the end, and with the indefinite flight abilities this world granted him Spyro went to leave this area. Shina followed close behind, but not before sighing in guilt for her part in Alex's anger…

 _Next Time: The Return of the Strange Aura_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Fracas in the Frozen Altars**

"Noooooow can we go to the Fireworks Factory?" Shina asked right upon returning to the Evening Lake, using a sing-song tone as she leaned close to Alex's ear.

"No!" Alex said with more irritation than before, with Spyro looking back and saying nonchalantly "What's the big deal with this Fireworks Factory?"

"Nothing, she's just really interesting in going there…for some reason. We can save that for later though, there's still two other places to go to." Alex said, and Spyro looked ahead and saw the portal to Charmed Ridge across the underwater bridge. On the other side of the castle behind them was the one to Frozen Altars. After swerving his head towards the location of the portals, the dragon made his decision.

"Lets go to Frozen Altars, I…got a bad feeling about the other place." Spyro didn't elaborate further even when asked by Shina, as he was already swimming his way to the portal. The group caught up and all entered the portal, which had a chilling blue sky and plenty of clouds to go around, along with a couple snow covered mountains far in the distance. But as they entered this world, they would be unaware of the trouble a certain cheetah would soon get into.

After his time in the Honey Speedway, Hunter came to the Evening Lake and crawled out of the water, somehow now cleaned of the honey. But as he shook his fur clean he noticed a lone button on the ground in front of him. Curiosity didn't kill the cat in this case, but choosing to go over and press that button opened a trap that dropped Hunter face-first into a steel cage whose roof slammed shut. The ground clamped tight, and a vile voice laughed at their accomplishments.

Back with the others though, they had landed in a winter wonderland, where there were three Inca-like temples layered with snow and a few snowflakes falling gently towards the ground. To Shina and Alex's surprise, each one looked exactly the same. Only a few seconds later though, their attention was grabbed by a frost winged girl with pure blue skin, dark blue hair, and a form fitting blue dress. Her blushing cheeks were very prominent, and her eyes were purple yet filled with magical warmth. She was only as big as Spyro's head, and her voice fit her demure size.

"Welcome to Frozen Altars, Spyro! On behalf of the ice fairies, I want to grant you a special power for as long as you stay in our world!" After bowing politely, the fairy swung a hang out from her mouth to send a breeze of snow flurries at Spyro, the dragon pulling his head back as the chill crept past his scales. When the magic took hold, Spyro breathed out and a spray of white and blue "flames" came out, carrying with them the winter chill.

"Huh, thanks! So do you guys need help with anything?" Spyro asked in return for the gift he received, but the fairy shook her head and replied "Good gracious not at all! The troubled ones are those guys over there. If you wish to help, speak to Alex!"

The fairy teleported away as Alex was left widening his eyes, looking ahead along with his companions at the bird person standing near a stone tower. They had green eyes, a duck beak, a warm blue and white blouse, and some limp purple quail feathers atop it's head. Alex's squinted and clenched his fists nice and slow, disrupted only by the humored snort coming from Shina. Looking at her, he saw as she was hunched over and holding her stomach, barely holding back her laughter.

"Do I want to know?" Alex dryly said, and Shina lifted her head up and briefly could only see the boy as a duck quacking his head and flapping his wings so madly that his feathers were flying off. Shina then fell on her back and kicked her feet while bursting into laughter. Alex just stared blankly at Spyro and told him "Lets get going" while the dragon just raised a brow in confusion. As the two of them move on, Shina lifts up and swings an arm out.

"W-Wait! I'm coming!" She hurried to her feet and chased after the others as they approached the duck person named Alex. The real Alex hoped they'd get through this conversation quickly. When Spyro got in front of this duck person, they started speaking in a rather chill manner.

"So you're Spyro huh? Hmm, glad you showed up. Some bear sold us a laser defense system to protect us from Rhynocs, but with these flippers I can't even turn it on. You'd have no trouble using it though. Walk inside, and when you're done just come back out."

"Oh…Y-You're not a duck?" Shina said embarrassingly while scratching the side of her head.

"Uhhh…no? Been a penguin all my life." The other Alex responded, and after a little chuckling Shina looked to her Alex while holding arms behind her back as she told him rather casually "S-Sorry I imagined you as a duck." Alex's response was to widen his eyes a little and then look away from Shina, shaking his head a bit. After that, Spyro entered the tower in front of him and activated the laser turret at the top.

There were a few obstacles that a little high temperature laser could deal with, such as a caveman Rhynoc, a towering snowman complete with crooked fangs, carrot nose and jagged branch arms, and a wall of ice blocking the way forward for the dragon. While Spyro was guiding the laser around with his claws on the levers, Shina suddenly exclaimed "We're going to look around! We'll try and catch up later!"

"We? …Wha-!" Alex said before Shina grabbed him by the arm and jolted towards the place they started off at in this world, with Alex's heart skipping a beat before he got a chance to put up any resistance. Once she stops and lets go, Alex shakes the hand out before his chest and exclaims "What are you doing now?!"

"Dividing and conquering, duh! We can get a few eggs ahead of time while Spyro deals with the back half of this world!" Shina said, brandishing up towards the temple towards the east of the tower, where Alex's attention is diverted to a lone Dragon Egg sitting atop a snowy ledge.

"Yeah, I guess if we jump down to the other side from there we can meet up with Spyro later. But next time just say that instead of tugging me away…" Alex rubs where he was grabbed until Shina extends her hand out to the skin and starts pushing aura onto the pressured area, her eyes closed as she hums a little tune. In a matter of seconds, Alex is able to shake his wrist and feel no pain.

"H-Huh…?" He muttered, looking to Shina's smiling face as she opened her eyes and said "I can do a little bit of healing with my aura. Learned it from my mom when I was young, hehe…!"

"I-I see." Alex slowly turned away from Shina as he whispered that, swerving his hand around before clenching it into a fist and lowering it beside his hip.

"I can even heal that wound behind that glove of yours if you want!" Shina spoke with utmost enthusiasm as she radiated aura around her held out hand.

"…That's not something you can heal, Shina. I don't think anyone can." Alex said solemnly, closing his eyes as Shina pulled back with a puzzled "Eh?" before she was quick to ask "How come?" But Alex gave no reply, leaving silence between them for five seconds before he looked to the Dragon Egg on the temple's ledge.

"Lets just get going, alright?" Alex then leaped right up to the egg as Shina scratched her forehead and murmured "Did I say the wrong thing?" and leaving herself wondering about that even as she forced a smile and jumped up after Alex. As the boy kneeled down, the egg shook and then hatched, with the snow white baby dragon with ivory wings kneading a snowball into it's tiny claws before throwing it playfully at Alex's forehead. The boy winced and only melted the snow after the baby dragon had left, though Shina was once again trying to hide her chuckle.

"We still got some time before Spyro gets to the other side, what else can we do?" As Alex stood up, Shina was pointing to a stone arch down to the right that looked similar to the portal to Bentley's Outpost, only with a magic vortex swirling amidst a black void at the door.

"Guess that works out. Bentley can get us a couple eggs before we catch up with Spyro." Alex dropped down right after that and threw a fireball at the demon snowman to leave a gem behind for later. Him and Shina then entered the portal, being carried through the darkness until they ended up in a secluded room much like what was at the start of Bentley's Outpost. The yeti was right in front of them, but had traded his club for a pair of blue boxing gloves and gym shorts.

"Hello again!" Shina exclaimed, with the yeti sharply turning around and almost clocking Alex in the face from surprise. He pulls his punch back and said "Oh goodness me, I was not prepared to be startled by you two!" before giving a merry guffaw.

"Whatcha up to now?" Shina inquired with a gesture, and Bentley's answer was swift but concerned "My brother got mixed up with another yeti and is in trouble. Apparently he lost something very important to him, so I'm ready to fight the yeti to swipe it back."

"And you're going to box him for it?" Alex raised an eyebrow, and Bentley raised his gloves up to look at them as he chuckled.

"Hahaha, I can see you're befuddled. But nothing like a good round or two of fisticuffs to set a bad yeti straight! So, I'm guessing Spyro isn't around to watch?"

"Yeah, he's cleaning up outside. But we're here to cheer ya on!" Shina pumped a fist, and Bentley nodded his head before replying "I appreciate that more than you realize. Well, come along, there's no time to waste!" Like that, he turned around and walked through the nearby tunnel as his spectators followed him closely. Past the tunnel was a small ice crystal cavern with enough lighting coming through the ceiling to see all of the surroundings.

There was a boxing ring set up, ropes around the edge and all, with a fiercer yeti on the opposite corner of the ring that wore red gloves and shorts. His head was smaller but more monstrous, though his arms and legs compensated for his face by being buffer than Bentley's own limbs. Outside of the ring closest to the tunnel, Bartholomew came running forward, panting like a dog.

"Hi Bart!" Shina proclaimed, and the little yeti right away responded in an exasperated tone "Why do you call me that?!" But after a shake of his head he looked to his older brother.

"Anyways, I'm glad you're here! That darn yeti stole my ball! Give him a few whacks for me, and bring it back!" Bartholomew made a big deal out of the matter, and while Bentley was far too willing to help Alex grumbled bitterly "I'm glad we know this leads to a couple eggs…"

Bentley pulled himself into the ring and got in his corner as an ice fairy came down carrying a cardboard sign with the words "Round 1" painted in red. "Show him what for bro! Knock his ugly block off!" Bartholomew proclaimed while grabbing onto one of the ropes, and after the fairy flew off a bell sounded and the match began. Shina and Alex stood back and watched, but Shina was already getting into it as she leaped onto the top rope and balanced with her hands.

"GET 'EM WITH THE RKO!" She screamed with surprising bluntness, stunning Alex for a few seconds until he got the courage to point out "Shina, this isn't the right sport for that, and get down from there you look ridiculous!" Shina was way too invested alongside Bartholomew though, and both kept hanging on the ropes as Bentley went to work against the monster yeti. Alex could only stand by himself and crinkle his forehead as he sighed.

Bentley started off his match by blocking a few jabs from his foe, then going for a left hook right into the yetis gut. The beast was winded, allowing Bentley time for two quick jabs to each side of his face before receiving a retaliatory jab to the chest, with that yeti packing enough wallop to knock Bentley back a couple inches.

Bentley stepped back and inched to the right while holding a glove up to block one quick jab from the brute before him, followed by him grabbing the yeti's glove to hold him there and deliver a powerful hook to the brute's gut. Once more his foe is winded, allowing Bentley to step in and deliver a few more punches to the brute's shoulders, though when the yeti got his energy back he threw an uppercut into Bentley's chin that launched him back a couple feet.

"Eh, feisty little rascal are yah?" Bentley brushed his chin and smiled before going in for another approach, swerving his body to a surprisingly agile degree to dodge some more punches before finding an opening and bombarding the other yeti with five punches to the chest. When the yeti retaliates, Bentley positions himself sideways and then smacks the brute in the face with the back of his glove, knocking him back into the ropes. When the brute is bounced back up, Bentley finishes swinging his fist around and socks him straight in the face.

After a few seconds of stumbling about, the yeti collapsed onto his back, and a Dragon Egg popped out of his shorts' pocket. "What's this now?" Bentley picked it up and then turned to carry it over to Shina. Bartholomew looked at it and said angrily "Hey! That's not my ball! That brute must still be carrying it around!"

"I'll deal with that in just a second Bartholomew, but first I believe this pretty little thing belongs to you lass." Shina lifted up her hands to catch the egg before her lack of support made her drop to the floor, where she put the egg down and watched it hatch. This baby dragon mimed boxing motions with his claws, before being carried away to safety. Bentley then turned around and looked to the yeti, who was already starting to get back onto his feet with some beastly growls coming from it's throat.

"Alright Bentley, one more round and-…Wait a second." Shina stopped as something jolted in her brain, and upon taking a more focused demeanor she held her hand up and closed her eyes. The yeti's aura, which was subdued and grey before, was now being overtaken by the same vile and cold violet aura that Spike wore. Widening her eyes back open in an instant, Shina saw as the yeti's body was bathed in that very aura, with it's eyes now burning with red light as it stared coldly at Bentley, who raised his brow in a bewildered manner.

"Now what's going on with you?" He questioned, and after a few pale pants the yeti responded in a deep but coherent tone "Fight…again…three…rounds…first to fall…shall die…!"

Alex leaped to the corner of the ring and was about ready to draw his sword as he stated in sheer bewilderment "Again?! We have to take this guy down n-"

"Hold it!" To Alex's surprise, it was Shina's rather blunt tone that stopped him from moving an inch forward, and he looked at her to ask as she firmly stared towards the yeti "What are you talking about? We can't let Bentley take this guy on alone!"

"We don't know what'll happen if we go in. We gotta assume this is a trap."

"A trap? Wait, what's going to happen to my brother?!" Bartholomew desperately asked while shaking his head back and forth to look at both Alex and Shina.

"He's right, you can't just be optimistic here and hope it'll turn out ok!" Alex brashly exclaimed, but with a smile on her face as bright as the sun Shina turned just enough to give the boy a wink and whispered "I didn't say we weren't going to help now did I?"

"Bentley, just keep going! Trust me on this, you'll be fine!" Shina spoke with a slight tone of authority and levitated herself off the ground so she was looking over the ropes, holding her hands up and closing her eyes as she focused on Bentley's body. The yeti glanced back and said "No rapscallion brute like this is going to put me down in the ground, you can be rest assured!" He then shuffles back into the proper corner of the ring, and the other yeti does the same while letting out a guttural laugh.

Shina held her focus on Bentley as much as she could, but the feeling of that other aura was leaving a cold grip on her mind and caused her to let out a quiet but pained moan before Bentley even began the battle against the yeti. A fairy came down with a sign, but the yeti grabbed them and threw them against the wall before charging forward with a roar. Bentley widened his eyes as the cavern shook, and then raised his right glove to block the yeti's punch.

The punch rocked the ring and threw Bentley back into the corner, but Shina quickly made some aura pop up from his back to cushion the impact. The brute got in front of Bentley and pounded at his body with a series of powerful hooks, but while Bentley held his gloves up Shina used her aura to help cushion the blows enough that he'd be able to get a hit in soon enough. The yeti steps back and holds his arms back for a combined punch, but at that point Shina exclaims "Go wild on him Bentley!" and coats her allies' fists to turn them into aura gauntlets.

"This is a bit crass, but I suppose the situation calls for it!" Bentley despite his qualms went for a few hard punches to the yeti's chest to push him back and allow him more room, followed by him delivering a hard hook to the side of his gut to wind the brute. The yeti, recovering faster than expected, caught Bentley's next punch. His face contorted into an unpleasant, fanged grin. But Bentley met him with a straight shot to the teeth for his arrogance, and the dazed yeti stumbled back to the middle of the ring. Bentley then took a moment to catch his breath.

"You holding up alright Bentley?" Shina asked with quite a bit of energy in her voice, though a sweat was trickling down the sides of her face as she cracked a smirk of confidence for her ally. Alex did not fail to notice this, but was distracted when the yeti let out a grand roar that shook the cavern.

"I'll be fine. This meathead isn't going to put me down so easily!" Bentley said proudly, and Shina nodded her head before telling him "Ok! But trust my judgment from here on out! He'll be coming at you from the right!"

The yeti did indeed charge forward and try a punch in that direction, and Bentley was able to swerve and punch his foe in the side of his face. "Left!" Shina's exclamation got the yeti's attention quickly enough that he could get one of the gauntlets in the way to grab the punch in time.

"Watch your head!" Bentley ducked and then struck the yeti in the chin with a couple punches.

"Bob and weave, then go for the chest!" Bentley followed through on that to dodge a few rapid punches and then hit the brute in the chest with a mean left hook. This time, the beast was very winded.

"Let'em have it!" Shina roared excitedly, and Bentley pounded the yeti with a flurry of punches that kept pushing them back until they were the ones now stuck in the corner. Winding back with a few swings of his fist around and around, Bentley's final blow was enhanced with sparkles of aura forced in by Shina, and he threw a powerful uppercut right to the dazed yeti's chin, releasing a bright star made of aura. After his body stretched out, the strange aura around the brute shattered and he was launched into the ceiling, his head getting lodged in there as the impact also dislodged a second Dragon Egg from his shorts.

Bentley caught it and turned around, and Shina opened her eyes and let out a single prolonged breath of relief before letting her arms droop. The yeti walked over to the edge of the ring and handed the egg over to Shina, saying politely "Another for you, Shina" and she took the egg into her hands with a smile before it hatched into a perky baby dragon that suddenly leapt at her. She was knocked out of the sky and landed on her back, with the dragon licking it's rough tongue on her sweaty face.

"Heh…hehe! Stop it, that tiiiickles!" Shina was having a blast with the baby dragon for the short time it was around, and while that was happening Bartholomew swung his arms out and exclaimed "Wait wait wait! So where is my ball?!" After a few seconds, he smacked his forehead and appeared to have a revelation.

"Oooooh I remember now! I left my ball back at home! Wow, so this was all just one BIG misunderstanding. Hahaha…Hahahaha…Oh." Realizing how much he screwed things up as he looked at the unamused expressions on Alex and Bentley's faces, Bartholomew hung his head with a dejected expression. Shina, however, was smiling too much to say anything as she got back onto her feet.

"Well, whatever the case, we made it through that just fine. I appreciate your assistance there Shina, and give my regards to Spyro when you see him." Bentley smiled and bowed, and Shina said "G-Glad to help! Catch ya later Bentley, and don't give Bart too much grief, alright?" She then made her way for the door, Alex giving her a curious glare as he followed her back out to the mainland of Frozen Altars.

"What was that all about?" Alex bluntly inquired, and after folding her arms behind herself Shina glances back and replied "Aura Boxing!" which needless to say made the boy raise his brows a little more.

"That thing you did with Bentley was called Aura Boxing?" Shina nodded her head with a hum after, and with a proud expression on her face she readied her explanation.

"It's the art of sensing opponents' movements through their aura and outpredicting them. All Aurians learn at least a little bit of Aura Boxing when their powers first develop, but we were supposed to channel our aura through training dummies at first. At more advanced levels, we use direct combat. There's a lot of other stuff to go over, but the gist of it is that I connected with Bentley's aura and helped him get the edge back on that yeti." To Alex's surpise, Shina spoke in a more mature tone befitting her age, not even slipping back into her perky self for even a second.

"S-So…You must really like doing that…Aura Boxing, I mean." Alex said while looking away from Shina with a blush in his cheeks, and Shina replied with a chuckle "I do, but I've never really connected with a non-Aurian before. They weren't wrong when they said it's straining."

"Well don't do that again then. A-Anyways…Anything else I need to know about this 'Aura Boxing'?" Shina rested a finger against her lips and went back to her peppy self as she replied "A girl has to have her s-e-c-r-e-t-s! Maaaaaaybe if you tell me something…?" She fluttered her eyelashes playfully, and with his blush reddening to the point his cheeks were as bright as a beet he quickly looked around for something to distract him. Thankfully, Spyro just so happened to leap down from a nearby ledge to the right of them.

"There you two are. Thought you vanished, but I guess you went to see Bentley. How'd it go?" Spyro asked, and after a long breath of relief Alex told him quickly "We got a few Dragon Eggs. How about you?"

"Found a few Eggs of my own. Pretty much wrapped up everything we had to do here…Including another visit to that 'greedy bear' the penguins got ripped off by." Spyro rolled his eyes a little, and Shina widened hers and said "Oh wow, we were in there for a while then! At least everything turned out OK!"

Alex wasn't going to even bother bringing up the strange aura to Spyro if Shina was going to pass it off as nothing. With arms crossed he then said "Then lets go. We got two places left." Shina's ensuing gasp of air led Alex to quickly state "We're going to Charmed Ridge next" and leave her with a deflating sigh, but she knew Alex couldn't stop her for much longer. Needless to say though, with their job done in this world, the group made their way to the portal back to Evening Lake which was rather close by…

 _Next Time: Love in the Air_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Catastrophe at the Charmed Ridge**

There was no resistance on Shina's part as the group made their way to the portal to Charmed Ridge. This place had a sunset atmosphere and a circular chain of purple mountains in the distance, and the floating island came in quicker than usual. The group landed on a lone floating island filled with grass and yellow flowers on the southern end of the world. As if anticipating their presence, there was another type of fairy flying to them the moment they landed. This one had normal skin, blue-ish hair, and a green dress.

The fairy spoke in a surprisingly thick Scottish accent "You and your friends came at the right time Spyro. The evil cat wizards of Felinia have stormed our castle and captured our princess! If we don't stop them right away, they'll force her to marry Prince Azrael!" and then left right away. Spyro sticks his head out a little and mentions "She didn't even let me answer!"

He then shook his lowered head and sighed, followed by looking back to Alex and Shina and bemoaning "Great, from stopping evil snowmen to breaking up a marriage. Bleh, knew this would happen at a place called _Charmed_ Ridge." While Alex was sharing the dragon's sentiment with a peeved expression, Shina was all smiles as she laid her clasped hands against the side of her face and swooned.

"Ah, forbidden love between members of two different kingdoms…But soft, what light through yonder window breaks…It is the east, and Ami is the sun." Shina takes on a romanticized tone, but Alex rolls his eyes while Spyro simply raises a brow.

"Yeah but unlike the story that comes from, those two aren't going to die for their love. Lets just get this over with." Alex then lifted his head up and gestured towards the lands beyond this lone island. There were a couple castle walls covered in moss, and a tower connected to one of them. The light of the sunset gave the land a pinkish hue, making the place feel more fantastical than it would otherwise.

"Ok!" Shina proclaimed before leaping off the island down to the ground before her, where there were some Rhynocs wearing feathered caps, old clothed clothes and wielding crossbows. Other Rhynocs wore suits of knight armor and carried lances taller than they were. However despite getting there first, Shina stands back as Alex drops down and swings his right hand out to send a wave of fire at the Rhynocs, unaware of the magic green sparkles floating down onto them.

In a second, the Rhynocs grew three times their normal size and Alex's flames bounced right off them, making him raise his brows before he looked up and saw some blue cats wearing orange wizard cloaks. They pointed at Alex and laughed mockingly, but with an unamused expression the boy snapped his fingers and created a burst of flame between the two wizard cats to send them rocketing towards the sky. Thankfully, they left their gems behind, and the growth magic is undone on the Rhynocs.

That's unfortunate for the knight, as it rams it's lance into Alex's gut and it slowly compresses into a rippled discus with a handle. The Rhynoc paused, looking exasperated until he slowly lifted his head up, and the last thing he sees in his life is the slight smile on Alex's face before he's punted straight into the stratosphere. Alex then folded his arms and looked up, quickly making his expression stoic before Shina looked at him. Spyro had already gotten up to the top of the wall and picked up the gems from the wizards.

"You guys going to stand around? Come on!" He said with a glance their way, and then he rushed on ahead as Shina and Alex leaped onto the wall to catch up. After another fairy reminded the group of the urgency of saving the princess, they dropped down to a new part of the land, where more cat wizards were running amok. This time, the wizards tried to impede the group's progress by manipulating the landscape, including moving a giant stone tower around, but Shina just pushed that wizard off with a nudge of aura and let Spyro ram into them to collect the gem.

Eventually though, a more pressing obstacle would get in their way…That greedy bear, Moneybags. His grin lasted only as long as Spyro was the only one in his line of sight. The moment Alex entered it, the bear's lips curled down into a frown, and his knees started shaking. Even so, he tried to play it cool as he stared Spyro down and began speaking.

"Well, well, well Spyro…It seems you are in a bit of a pickle. These stairs just simply refuse to stay still…But I've worked out a little deal with the wizards. Pay me a small toll, and they shall make things right again! What do you say? Willing to cough up 600 gems?"

As Moneybags was trying to perform grand theft gems, Alex looked to a ledge on a nearby mountain and saw two cat wizards sneering over there, and with a slight lean he whispered to Shina "Can't we just take care of those two and avoid being ripped off?"

"We cooooould, but…" Shina rested a finger on her chin and looked at Alex, playfully smiling before she continued "Then we lose out on a lot later, wink wink." She bat her eyelashes twice and Alex actually picked up on what she was saying.

"Hmph, I guess I can't argue with that. We'll save THAT for later." By the time the two had decided on no interference, Spyro had already asked Sparx to pay up the gems to Moneybags, who breathed a sigh of relief as he opened his sack to accept his payment.

"Hehehe, thank you for the cooperation Spyro. After all, you're my FAVORITE customer!" Moneybags was at least honest, in his own corrupt way, and he turned to the wizards and clapped a couple times. The wizards waved their paws out and sent magic to the stairs, causing them to rise up from their slanted state. Spyro immediately went to climb them, but they returned to a slant before he made it to the top and he slid to the bottom on all fours. After he stood up he gave the bear a glare and puffed some smoke from his nostrils.

"Oh dear, it seems those sneaky cats pulled one over on me. They said they were going to raise them HALF of the time. I suppose you'll just have to watch your st-" A couple shocked meows were heard, interrupting the bears' sly remark as he turned to notice that they were launched off the ledge by a fireball. With the bears' mouth agape, he looked to the right as Alex walked nonchalantly past him with the fire on his fingertips fading. Shina waved Moneybags goodbye as the group climbed the staircase.

"…Perhaps I should consider finding more customers." The bear was left mumbling to himself while the group went on their way. After a few Rhynocs are dealt with, Shina stopped on a platform in the middle of a blue acid lake and turned left, commenting loudly "There's an alcove over there!" Spyro stopped and did a 180 to see where Shina was pointing. Indeed, there was an alcove hidden there, and an egg obscured around the edge.

"Good eye!" He complimented before charging to the edge of the platform and leaping into a glide over to the alcove, with Alex and Shina followed as he gets the egg to hatch into a young dragon that cartwheels before being sent away by magic. Beyond that lied a magic gate like the one in Lost Fleet, but this one had a burning flame instead of shield.

"Oh hey, a Superflame! Haven't seen one of those since Bamboo Terrace." Spyro said excitedly before leaping down and running through the gate, which suddenly made every part of his body turn dark red and allowed him to shoot searing fireballs from his mouth. He looked back at his allies and said "I'll catch up in a bit, just going to clean up around here." He then dashed off, and after he was a good enough distance away Alex tapped his right foot a couple times then looked to Shina. She was already prepared to head back outside, but he was just in time to stop her.

"Shina, hold on, that Superflame gate reminded me of something I wanted to bring up." He was not too firm, but spoke loudly enough that she would gladly turn around and hear him out. She stayed still and smiled, letting out a meager hum as she looked him straight in the eyes. He blushed a light shade of red, but swallowed his embarrassment as best he could and got to the point.

"You've felt off since coming here, right?"

"Well there was that tingly feeling I had when we entered the atmosphere…Whatcha thinking about Alex?"

"Someone like Spike shouldn't have given me trouble, and it feels like I use up a lot more energy for attacks. And now we're adhering to rules we wouldn't be following normally, such as being able to talk and breathe through water, and not being able to use those magic gates."

"Well I don't think we'd be doing that second one anyways." Shina joked, but Alex firmly said "Can you take this seriously, Shina?!" and stamped his foot down to punctuate his anger. After a pause, the girl gestured a hand out and began speaking calmly.

"So you're saying something changed us?" Alex nodded his head, but scratched the side of it before noting "But then that makes me wonder who or what is responsible."

"I don't think that really matters, lets just keep going!" Shina quickly returned to her chipper tone of voice, and Alex gave her a very, VERY peeved glare. She cracked a smile and mentioned "Beeeeecause think about it. We still know what to do, we still defeated Spike…We just got to watch out for that freaky aura and we should be fine. I mean, I think you're still stronger than anyone here Alex!"

"W-Well thank you but…" Alex discarded his slight embarrassment and looked aside, whispering to himself "Doesn't change how violated this makes me feel." Shina did not notice his ensuing shiver as she had already turned back around and leaped back over. He followed a moment later, and not too soon after Spyro had already caught up with them and he no longer had the Superflame.

"Were you two just standing around?" He inquired, and Shina bluntly replied "Yep!" not even bothering to hide anything much to Alex's dismay.

"Well, whatever, at least I found a Dragon Egg." Spyro said with a slight shake of his head, and then the group moved on. There was some more tricks from the wizard cats, but Alex's ability to fire projectiles meant they didn't have to bother with them. It didn't take very long for them to lower a wooden gate to the inside of the castle, where a squadron of Rhynocs and wizards were waiting, but it didn't take long for Spyro to deal with all of them and the ringleader atop the small central tower. The last gate came crashing down, and now the group could go ahead to rescue the princess…

Atop the staircase, there was a wedding altar set up complete with ivory gate and bushes of flowers. Locked in a gentle but passionate kiss was a pink-skinned fairy with a pink princess gown and regal crown atop her head. Her lover was a male cat wizard with orange fur and a black/grey robe and tiny skull earrings, and off to the side of the altar was a motorcycle with flame decals. In the face of this scene, Spyro raised his brows in confusion and said "Huh? What's going on here?"

Their romantic moment ceased, the fairy and wizard looked at the group with little concern on their face. The fairy in fact smiled and said "Oh Spyro! You came all this way just to stop us, didn't you?"

"Uh…yeah?" Spyro replied, and the fairy chuckled before telling him "Well, I must apologize, but the news of my kidnapping has been far, far exaggerated. Prince Azrael and I have chosen to elope because of the conflict between our people. He's quite a charmer, no pun intended, hee hee."

Prince Azrael stepped forward and made a few polite meows, but when Spyro just tilts his head the fairy Princess Ami explained "He wishes none of you harm, and would like to give you a Dragon Egg in exchange for telling no one of our departure." With a few waves of his hands, the prince called forth said egg in a puff of magic, and in Spyro's presence it hatched into a baby dragon that chased a butterfly around for a few seconds before being safely carried away.

"Do what you want, my lips are sealed." Spyro said rather quickly and nudged his wings towards the motorcycle, and after a giggle the Princess turned to her now wed husband and said "Then let us be off, my dear!" The two then got onto the motorcycle, the fairy wrapping her hands around her husband's stomach as he revved the engines up and popped a wheelie, driving the vehicle right off the edge of the world as magic carried him and his new lover through the air.

After a brief period of quietness, Alex turned to Shina and saw that her cheeks were ready and her hands clasped firmly on them. She swayed her head around a little with eyes closed and said "Oh the splendor of love come true…Don't you both just find it incredible?"

"Bleck, no."

"It was so sickly sweet I felt like vomiting."

After Alex and Spyro gave their thoughts in unison, Shina let out a sigh and her enthusiasm was deflated. Spyro then turned to them and said "I think we still got a few eggs left…Anywhere we didn't look?"

"There was a cave on the other side of that acid lake. We could glide over there!" Shina proclaimed right away, and Alex turned his head and while pointing out from his arm fold said "And I think I see a portal up on that island. I guess I'll go check that out."

"Sounds like a plan. We can meet back here to return to Evening Lake!" Shina proclaimed, but Alex had already sprinted off towards the main castle grounds much to her surprise. She shook her head and then her and Spyro went off to the acid lake, where the dragon had enough height to glide over to a cave on the other side. There were a few more enemies around, but the more important thing to note was the swirling portal of magic nearby.

Entering it took the duo to another part of the world. The aesthetics remained the same, but now there was some stout scrawny man wearing a green piper's outfit complete with the spindly feather topped hat. What stuck to out to Shina though was that he had no nose, just the two dotted nostrils in the middle of his bizarrely shaped face. Upon being approached, the person said "Well howdy! The name's Jack! I bought this bag of magic beans from a particularly kind bear, but I don't know how to use them right…Oh, if only I could get to the golden goose at the top of that there tower, then I could use it's golden eggs to get a little money for ma and pa."

"And Moneybags finds another sucker…" Spyro murmured and Jack replied "What was that?"

"Nothing, so what, you want us to help you get to this goose?" Spyro asked, and Jack nodded his head.

"I'd really appreciate it! Here, have a couple seeds!" Jack then reached into his tiny brown bag and threw out two seeds. One was pink with some white spots, the other was yellow due to being covered in pollen. Spyro muttered "Oh hey, I remember something like this. So first I need to…" He then swallowed up the pink seed in his mouth, his cheeks puffing out while Shina picked up the other seed and moved on ahead.

There were a couple patches of dirt, and Spyro spat one of the seeds out onto the right one. The seed dug itself in, and a mushroom bloomed up in seconds. Shina patted the other seed down onto into the other patch, and a daffodil as tall as herself rose up. She stepped back before the petals brushed against her shirt, and then rubbed her hand along the flower until she felt the fluffy pollen in the center.

" _So this is pollen…I like it!"_ Shina smiled, reminded of cotton as she rubbed the pollen at her fingertips for a few seconds. Spyro leaps onto the flower and uses it as a solid platform, then he comments as Shina pulls her hand back "Come on, we got work to do!" He then leaped onto the mushroom and it pushed down from his weight until it puffed back out and launched Spyro up, giving him enough height to glide to the other side.

Shina followed after shaking the pollen off her fingers, but she let out a prolonged "Wheeeeee!" while performing a few flips off the mushroom. Spyro and Shina dealt with another puzzle with more seeds and eventually made their way up to a higher ledge, but this time Jack follows them up there with an anticipating grin on his face.

"Hahaha! I found an egg on the way up here! It must have been laid by the golden goose!" After Jack put a Dragon Egg in front of Spyro he started doing a merry jig, and thus missed the baby dragon that hatched out. Then he looked to Spyro and Shina and said "Anyways, just a few more steps to go! Here, have a few more seeds!" He then tossed out two yellow seeds and one pink one.

As Spyro put one in his mouth, Shina felt a slight twinge in her right fingers and looked at them, not noticing anything off and wondering why that sensation was there. Her mind then thought of Alex because of the glove he hand on that same hand, and she wondered _"Hope he's not gotten into trouble."_

In another part of the world, Alex was with Sgt. Byrd, floating in the middle of a hurricane of cat witches riding their broomsticks, all of them having that strange purple aura around them. They were filling the air with their cackles, forcing Alex to glance at the penguin and exclaim "AND YOU'RE DOING ALL THIS FOR A DATE WITH A FAIRY?!" The penguin could only shrug, while Alex set his whole body on fire ready for a grueling battle.

" _Ah, I'm sure he's fine!"_ Back with Shina, she cracks a smile and follows Spyro further into the area, where they use the seeds to keep making their way to the backside of the center of the castle, and some lined up mushrooms act as the trampolines to the top of the tower. Shina says "Boing!" louder and louder with every bounce she makes, culminating in her doing a flip before landing.

Instead of a golden goose though, the creature was a large cartoonish chicken clucking all by it's lonesome. It fluttered it's wings as Jack suddenly made a giant leap up the side of the tower, which makes Spyro raise a brow before he walked over to him and pointed out jokingly "Looks like your goose is cooked."

Jack looked to the chicken and smiled, cracking into laughter before walking over and reaching under the bird, causing it to let out a surprised "BUCKAW!" as Jack pulls out…A Dragon Egg. He held it up high and exclaimed "At last! The treasure of the golden…CHICKEN! With this, I will be able to get the money I need for ma and pa!"

Then the egg hatched right in his hand, and a golden dragon stood on his palm for a little bit before being teleported away by magic. Jack tilted his head and said "H-Huh?" before the chicken, maddened by his underside being grabbed, suddenly picked Jack up by his shoulders and flew off into the distance while Jack just kept laughing mad. Spyro and Shina watched that unfold, and while looking at Sparx the dragon comments "We see some strange things sometimes, huh buddy?"

Sparx gave a nonchalant buzz, and Shina said in a peppy tone "But that just makes fun memories for ya both!"

"Yeah, you're right. Well, lets head back to the portal and get out of here." Spyro remarked before the three of them made their way out of this area, covering the ground they traversed before and ending up at the portal to Evening Lake. Alex was already there waiting for them, his arms folded and a bit of cat fur stuck on his skin. Once he sensed Shina's presence, he looked to her as she waved at him.

"So we're done?" He quickly asked, and Shina nodded her head.

"How did it go?" She smiled, and Alex closed his eyes before replying "Not talking about it, but everything's alright on Sgt. Byrd's end." Shina chuckled, but then again felt a twitch in her right hand. Looking at it, she sees that something red and rough has formed on her fingertips.

"Huh…? What's this?" Shina looked it over with some legitimate confusion, and Alex suddenly was in front of her looking down at this and with a slight grit of his teeth said "Tsk…! Come on Shina, how'd you get this rash? …Actually scratch that, looks like an allergic reaction. Geez, what did you even touch?"

"Uhhh…pollen?" Shina said while nervously chuckling and scratching the side of her head, while Alex quickly rested a hand atop Shina's rashes while using the other to hold onto her wrist. From his skin he excreted some aloe vera, slowly rubbing it all over while saying in an exasperated tone "Well look, this will keep the rash from itching. Don't touch it and it'll heal quickly."

When he was done he pulled back and shook the spare aloe vera off his hand, but when he looked up he was met with Shina's fond and appreciative smile. He quickly looked away and lightly grit his teeth. Shina lowered her hand and said "It feels better, thank you Alex. I'll be careful of pollen from now on!"

"You should be careful of more than just our enemies…" Alex whispered to himself, but before Shina could press him on that Spyro finally blurted out "Are we leaving or not?" and the mood was broken. Nothing else to say for now, the group made their way into the portal, where just one world remained…And to Alex's dismay, it was the one Shina was really excited for.

 _Next Time: The Best Level Ever_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Flight at the Fireworks Factory**

"…Shina, try and control yourself when we go in here, ok?" Alex said with some concern as him and her floated before the portal to Fireworks Factory, and at the moment he was holding her arm to keep her back. Spyro paddled directly in front of the portal, keeping only the slightest bit of patience as he kept looking back at the portal, nudging his towards it in hopes that the others will notice him.

"Oh come on, aren't ya excited?! You can't tell me this wasn't a part of your ch-" Alex muffles her voice with the other hand, putting him in a rather awkward position while Shina just kept going on joyously about their next destination. She then gently pulled away the hand from her face and after catching her breath she told Alex "Are you suuuuure you've got nothing to say about this place?"

"Regardless of my feelings on this place, I'm not going to blurt out anything that tells Spyro the truth." Alex said while closing his eyes and letting out a slight groan, and Shina was once more about to get really dramatic about his resistance until he opened his eyes and said "Lets just get going, shoot…"

"Yaaaaay!" Shina proclaimed with child-like giddiness, and for a moment Alex was left begging for that serious girl he caught a glimpse of to return. He glided over to Spyro, who said to him "Finally decided to continue huh?"

"…Sometimes you got to take things as they come Spyro." Alex murmured with a sigh before the group flew through the portal, which had a dark purple sky with a few clouds and the moon shining brightly upon the land up ahead. The floating island contained a castle with thick walls, a lava moat around the border, and there were hundreds of black ninja Rhynocs guarding the premises. After a little more flying, the group landed on a lone platform that was only connected to the rest of the land by a stone bridge.

Shina widened her eyes to the point she looked a bit cartoonish, and then she cracked her knuckles loudly enough that Alex actually looked at her and said "W-Wait, was that you?" Shina grit her teeth into a joyous smile and said "Finally, I've been waiting for this! Theatmosphere,the enemies,themusic,everythingthereistodoandsee!Trulythisisthebestofwhatthisworldcanoffer!" After kneeling down and holding her fingers to the ground, Shina suddenly broke into a sprint, kicking up dust that left Alex and Spyro coughing for a few seconds.

"Gah…! Boy, she's sure excited all of a sudden. I could barely understand a word she said…" Spyro noted as he flapped the dust away, and Alex breathed a sigh of relief and murmured "Thank goodness…" Then looked forward just in time to see Shina kick an armor chest plated Rhynoc into a wall right as someone was in the middle of suplexing them. Shina then landed on the ground and zipped around, her motions almost a blur as she moved between the ninja Rhynocs and knocked them all out with a single punch.

"…You know, we could probably just leave this place to Shina and wait for her at Evening Lake." Alex suggested while giving Spyro a half-hearted glance. The dragon shook his head and replied "Nah, she can't possibly take all the fun. Besides, looks like she's missing all of the gems." Alex widened his eyes and glared out into the distance, seeing that what he said was true and quickly gritting his teeth into a scowl so hard that he nearly broke down some of the enamel.

" _If this world wasn't messing with me I'd SO be swearing you out right now Shina!"_ With Alex and Spyro left to clean up Shina's activities, the two went down the nearby ramp and ran across the person who had suplexed the earlier Rhynoc. They were a young girl wearing a white gi whose bottom was shaped like a skirt, and they had white pants for their stubby toeless legs and feet. Her pink head was shaped like a football and her hair was dark blonde with a couple pigtails. Each of her green eyes were half the size of Spyro's head, with the eyelids closing entirely in an inward circle. Her tongue was constantly stuck out partway, which would do a bit to explain her immature manner of speaking.

"Oh hewwo, it's good to see you again Spywo. That naught sorceress has stolen the pwofessor's wocket plans and I'm on a secwet mission to find them. Handel was supposed to meet me here but I can't find him anywhere. Maybe you could help?" The girl stood still, much to Alex's surprise, and the dragon replied in a friendly tone "Sure I can Greta. I'm surprised to see you away from Avalar though."

"Oh, I was just sightseeing with my bwother. Anyways, good luck!" The girl then ran off through the passage carved into the nearby wall, leaping up to casually spin-kick a couple ninjas in the face. Spyro shook his head a little before saying nonchalantly "What a couple of goofs. Hey Alex, keep an eye out for another kid like her, just with shorter hair."

"Assuming Shina doesn't-…You know what never mind, lets go." Alex was ready to move on and after him and Spyro cleaned up the gems Shina left behind they went through to the passage and ended up in front of a thick wooden bridge suspended over a lava river. On the bridge were some ninjas performing exaggerated backflips before they stopped in front of the two and pulled out some steel staffs, swinging them in front of them and trying to look all tough with their slanted eyebrows and forced karate cries.

Alex swung his arm out and called his sword, and as Spyro charged through one of the Rhynocs with ease the boy made the simple decision of smacking the other one with the side of his sword to knock him into the lava. _"Shina's not doing a good job, come on now…"_ He thought before glancing out to the right and noticing a Dragon Egg across some stones on the river.

"Spyro, lets grab that egg." He commented before the dragon charged over the bridge. Spyro grinded to a halt and looked at the egg, then leaped over the platforms to it, the heat not affecting him in the slightest. Alex joined him as the egg hatched into a baby that juggled balls in his claws for a little before he was sent away by magic. Alex then put his hands into his pockets and glanced to the left, where he was surprised to see three ninjas thrown one after the one into the stones embedded into the side of the castle.

Alex's shock lasted for a moment before he noticed Shina's blurring figure around that area, at which point he closed his eyes and said with teeth slightly grit "I-I just realized…" As Spyro looked to that area he saw a few more ninjas leaping down from the castle walls, and glanced up to notice a few boxes with a Rhynoc face on them that were able to infinitely release more ninjas into the area.

"There's going to be endless ninjas until we get to the boxes." The two said at the same time, making them glance at one another until Alex stated "Guess we'll have to deal with that instead of relying on Shina…Of course!" As he then threw his arms up into the air and leaped over to the next part of the factory, he had wished he wasn't right about his suspicions of her coming here. Alex and Spyro cleaned up the area of Rhynocs and gems before entering the castle itself, which had a brighter atmosphere and lilac colored walls.

Alex raised his brows at the coiled black dragons on the walls, which gave the world even more of a Chinese aesthetic, and then followed Spyro up the small ladder and took down an armored bomb throwing Rhynoc to clear the way back to the outside. There, they finally caught up with Shina, who was leaning forward with hands rested on kneecaps and taking a moment to catch her breath. In front of her was a large bronze-iron cannon with a dragon's mouth as the head of the barrel. Greta also happened to be nearby.

Alex walked up to Shina and bent down to look at her. Her face was drenched in sweat, and some of it had soaked into her shirt. The boy quickly looked away with a blush on his face but it was too late, as Shina smiled and stood up, stretching her arms up high and commenting after a grunt "Glad ya caught up Alex! Are you having fun?"

"Y-You're forgetting the gems and eggs Shina, focus!" Alex said with a slight fluster in his voice, while Shina looked at him with head tilted before pointing out in a humored tone "You knew this was coming. You should just go along with the fun! Like look at this cannon, you should let yourself be fired out of it instead of flying across the gap!" Shina then stepped aside and gestured to the cannon, whose back had been slapped open by Greta before she suddenly leaped over to the other side.

Alex glared at the cannon as Spyro put himself in and said something about seeing them on the other side, where the cannon then turned ninety degrees to the left and shot the dragon straight across, and he stuck the landing even after spinning around for a couple seconds. Shina nudged her eyebrows a couple times until Alex commented "We're too big to fit in these you goofball. Now stop messing around, you can always experience this place again when you go home to your video games."

Without a word, Shina sighed and then suddenly leaped into the cannon as it opened back up, curling herself into a form that barely fit within. Alex widened his eyes and was prepared to pull her out when the back shut and after a boom Shina was launched through the air the same way Spyro was, and she landed softly on her feet while throwing her arms into the air. She then turn around and exclaimed to the flabbergasted in place Alex "You got no excuse now! Come on Alex, have some fun!"

Gritting his teeth a little and grumbling about the dumb nonsensical rules of this world, Alex just quickly flew over to the other side, which led to Shina resting a hand on her forehead with a disappointed expression. As they moved on to a bridge guarded by a couple more armored Rhynocs, Shina said to Alex in a light-hearted tone "I find is very, VERY hard to believe you don't have any fond memories of this place."

"Shina just-" Before Alex finished Shina began to hum a tune, the theme of this world they were in, and for a moment the boy couldn't interrupt because admittedly…She was doing a very good job, and a part of him looked down with a solemn expression after he heard her go at it for a while. She misinterpreted his reason for doing that though, and at the end of the bridge where there was just one last interior of the castle to traverse she raised her brows and said "Ok I'm going to try one last thing, it's sure to work!"

She then stopped at the bottom of the small staircase where Greta was hanging around, and as Spyro approached she commented "It looks like the sorceress has already used the plans to build her own wocket. We have to destwoy it! Just follow me!" Then, with youthful energy, Greta leaped to the top of the stairs and sprinted forward, and Alex's attempt to follow her was stopped by Shina putting a hand to his chest. As Greta went against the ninjas guarding the way, he couldn't help but have a bad feeling welling in his stomach.

Greta kicked a ninja right in the face and then bounced off them towards a wall, sticking to it just long enough to avoid a rocket launched from another ninja, where she then leaped down and paused for a few seconds before kicking their face inward. Then she ran out the other side and swerved to the left, punching a ninja off the side of the building before running along the wall and ceiling to drop down onto the last ninja that was guarding a large red button. All this done while keeping that innocent look on her face.

After pressing the button, Greta turns to the wooden shutters on the floor as they swung open, and a tall metallic rocket with a Dragon Egg strapped to it with ropes is activated. It launches out of the chamber and burns high into the sky for but a few seconds until it suddenly explodes, with the egg falling unharmed right in front of Greta as the rest of the group caught up with her.

Greta looked at the egg and said while squinting "Hey look, they must have been twying to put it into orbit!" The egg hatched into a blue baby dragon with a dopey expression, and as it disappeared a portal back to Evening Lake opened up with the girl stating happily "Well, if you see Handel, tell him I went back to Evening Lake to finish work on the pwofessor's wocket!" Handel then ran through the portal, with Spyro just shaking his head at what he had just witnessed.

Shina, meanwhile, stood at the edge of where the shutters once were and looked at a metallic spaceship with a wooden sign depicting a monkey face off to the side. Noting that for later with a smile, she twirled around and said to Alex "Sooooo? How about that! Spark a memory or two?" Alex just stood there and shook his head slightly, and at that point Shina just had a flat pout on her face as she let out a rather blunt "Hmph…!"

"U-Uhh, Shina?" Alex said, taken aback by her remark, but she just held her hand up and said with little levity in her voice "Oh don't worry about it. We can do a little more around here. I saw a portal off to the left of here. YOU can take the rest of the area." She then pointed at Alex and held that out as she went to the right edge of the area and then leaped off, gliding over to a small tower that held a portal on it. But for a second, Alex could've sworn she was smiling at him.

Alex blinked a couple times before thinking _"Wait, she's not mad at me…Is she? U-Ugh, not like I even care, it's none of her business if I'm nostalgic or not! Darn-tootin' goof…"_ He was unaware of the slight blush in his cheeks until Spyro said to him "You two have an odd friendship, don't you?" That snapped him out of his thoughts enough to feel the warmth in his cheeks, and after feeling his right for a little he turned around and slapped himself a couple times.

"Whatever, lets just go." He remarked before joining Spyro on a mission to find another Dragon Egg in a portal on the right side of the castle. Meanwhile, Shina focuses on him with her aura sight for a little bit as her back was turned to the portal. She slowly opened her eyes and said "Maybe I shouldn't have been such a tryhard. I got to have more faith in him…" She held a fist against her chest and then nodded with a smile, turning herself around and going through the portal.

She ended up on a small stone bridge leading up to another Superflame gate, and next to it was a boy with similarities to Greta. Unlike what Spyro said though, he wore a whirly cap on his hair. As Shina approached the boy she looked out to the small castle with the lava flowering underneath it and saw a couple of Chinese paper dragons flying around. They had no arms or legs, and they were divided into roughly 16 thorny sections. They also had fanged static grins and pupil-less green eyes.

For the moment, the dragons were docile and just moving around without a care, even with their intimidating appearance, so Shina was safe to talk with the boy. He spoke in the same manner as Greta, but with a little more masculinity.

"Hewwo pwetty lady…Are you here to slay the fire dwagons?" He asked in a cutesy voice.

"Sure thing! Sadly, I can't use this magic gate…So sorry if you took some time to set it up for Spyro." Shina said with a chuckle and a grin.

"That's alwight. If you can fwy, you should be able to beat them. Good luck!" The boy waved at Shina as she swung her arm out to summon her rapier, commenting in a unconcerned tone "I just need one sword to slay two…dragons?" She's interrupted by a sudden sharpness entering her mind, and upon looking out she sees the dragons are now being covered in that strange aura. As they moved closed to the edge of the bridge, they multiplied into four separate dragons, all of them the same size yet having the different colors of orange, purple, green and red. They swarmed close together and looked down at Shina with their glowing red eyes, but didn't budge an inch closer.

Shina blinked a bit at the dragons, with Handel saying with slight panic in his voice "Oh no! They've multipwied!" However, Shina stretched her arms up and cracked her bones a little, resting a hand close to her bracelet as she leaned left and right and then back. Once a crack is heard from her back she stands upright and gives the dragons a smile, telling them rather perkily "Well, I guess I haven't used this in a while! If one weapon ain't good enough…" She then pressed down on the bracelet stone with the two fancy pistols crossing each other.

"Then I guess I'll have to go for many!" Her body was then covered in a silver glow for a few seconds, as a few gunshots could be heard around her. The glow shatters, and Shina's appearance had changed greatly.

Her hair had become silver-ish with some blonde highlights. Her eyes glowed so bright they could be seen in the darkest caverns. She now had a red rounded device connected to her ear and a light-blue scouter lens in front of her right eye. Her shoes had been replaced with slender blue military boots that go up to her kneecaps and have three black belts strapped across them, both of them having slight heels, and on the rest of her legs were silver stockings that reached to her hips.

Around her waist was a blue leather belt with a golden lock at the bottom of the curve at the middle, and with the belt she's able to support her white green lower rim skirt and a couple of oddly shaped mechanical holsters on her back. Her shirt is sleeveless and sapphire with rivets going vertically around it, and the sides of her breasts are covered by a silver corset underneath. Six inches of her midriff are revealed, and she has a sapphire cloth with green edging attached to each shoulder by a metallic strap. Finally, she has fingerless black gloves and a bracelet on each wrist with small red cords sticking out.

With arms crossed above her head, Shina clasps her hands together right as two long barreled pistols made of silver aura appeared, and she stood rather confidently for a moment as the wind around her died down and she finally stared her enemies down. Locking onto each of their aura with the scouter, Shina smiled brightly and swung her pistols down, with the wires connecting to them as she said in a forcibly masculine tone "Cawm awn! Make my day!"

The dragons then launched some fireballs at Shina, but she leaped off the platform while leaving behind cybernetic looking afterimages. She floated sideways and rapidly clicked the triggers of her pistols, firing bullets upon a couple of the dragons at blinding speeds. They impacted the dragons and made brief spurts of aura come out, and starting from the back the segments began to shrink into nothingness. Those dragons turned around and rapidly sent out fireballs as they weaved between each other.

Shina flew downward and then flipped so she could place her gun barrel heels against the bellies of the dragons, loading her pistols into the mechanisms on her back as she released a shotgun blast of aura that repelled her and knocked off a few segments of the dragons each. As she spun to straighten herself the other two dragons were coming in to bite her, and with a firm glare she suddenly pulled out two shotguns and the mechanism on her back had changed to be able to fit them.

"Sorry, no touchy!" Shina then fired a pair of powerful shotgun blasts right into the dragon's faces, pushing them back and removing four sections from their bodies. The recoil sent her hurtling back before a swift kick and shot from her heels stopped her above an underground tunnel. Shina widened her eyes but giggled, followed by her locking the shotguns snugly into the mechanism. Her scouter beeped and she looked up to see the first two dragons spiraling down at her, then another alert told her of the others approaching.

After a slight grin a few clicks were heard from her mechanism and she kicked back with a shot from her heels so the dragons rammed into each other, followed by them slowly turning to look at her as she pulled a hand away and gave them an innocent wave. After they let out a growl they went into pursuit together, forcing Shina to push back to the rocky wall and bounce off it with a shotgun kick as the dragons grinded their bodies against the side of it as they did a U-turn to pursue her. She then propelled herself towards the tunnel while her concealed weapon was filled by a pale glow.

She was able to stay far ahead of the dragons as they followed her inside the darkened tunnel, but they would soon regret sticking so close together. A light stretched out across the tunnel, born by a pair of rebounding harpoons made of aura, and connected to them were thick ropes. After those harpoons moved around the tunnel for a while, they repeatedly pierced the dragons and bound them together in place. At the far end of the tunnel, Shina holds her harpoon guns to the ground and then turns them into nail guns in a blink of an eye, pinning the ropes to the ground as the dragons struggle to break free.

She then steps back a bit and holds her guns together, smirking behind them as they merged to form a laser cannon with a barrel twice as big as she was. With energy charging inside of it, Shina took one moment to say cheerfully to her foes "Sorry to make this quick, but it's been a BLAST!" She then fired a tunnel filling beam of swirling aura, which didn't take long to reach it's target, consuming the dragons in it's bright expanse as their sections were destroyed one after the other. This culminated in their heads exploding in a burst of flaming as the beam dispersed from sight.

Shina, however, had fallen onto her back as the laser cannon broke down into the pistols she originally started out with, but after a couple blinks she laid her arms against the ground and started giggling excitedly. Then she stood up and let out a sigh of relief as she swiped sweat off the forehead with a gun, commenting as she holsters them both "Forgot how fun it was to use this!" She then leaped out of the tunnel and went back to Handel, who was clapping his hands vigorously.

"Wow! That was so cool! While you were fighting, I found a Dwagon Egg. You should have it." Handel then reached into his gi and pulled out said egg, laying it on the ground so it could hatch into a baby that pretended to use his claws to fire guns for a few seconds. Shina laid a hand on her cheek and was left enamored by their actions, a blush glowing on her face as she inevitably loses focus on everything around her but what that dragon did.

"Shina?! Just what in blazes are you wearing?" That is to say, until Alex's voice calls out, which leads to her turning to see him and Spyro near the portal. She waved her hand up and then snapped out of this new form of hers, sprinting over to the two while Spyro inquired nonchalantly "Did you find a Dragon Egg?"

"Uh-huh! I don't think we can get everything else right now, I saw a closed off portal where the rocket was." Shina said, ignoring the very puzzled glare Alex was currently giving.

"Well alright. We took care of a ninja hideout, so all that's left is to go back to Evening Lake!" Spyro proclaimed, and as he turned around to leave with Shina following behind Alex got right beside her and whispered dryly "You never told me you're a magical girl."

"Hehe…! Oh dear, the tough and serious Alex Whiter thinks of a magical girl as his first comparison?" Shina playfully pointed out with fingers rested on her lips, leading to Alex turning his head away in a snap and replying with a firm blush in his cheeks "S-Shut up! You know what I mean."

"If ya want to know my s-e-c-r-e-t, then all ya have to do is answer one simple question." Shina said while pointing towards Alex, who sighed and grumbled "Fine, what?" his voice filled with dread.

"Do you feel any nostalgia for this world?" It was a simpler question than what Alex was expecting, and he was willing to answer right away after putting on a more relaxed expression.

"O-Of course I do, to some extent…But there's no point getting worked up over that. Besides, when it comes to memories…" Alex closed his eyes and winced a little before murmuring "…Never mind…" Shina glanced at him for a little bit, giving him almost a pitying frown before she forced a smile and held her bracelet before her chest.

"Well, as promised, I'll tell you about my Gunslinger Drive." Once Alex's attention was focused on her bracelets she pointed to the stone she used and went on to explain in a cheerful tone "Basically, these drives empower our aura with different abilities. My Gunslinger Drive allows me to create multiple weapons with aura so long as I can think of them, though usually they have to be some manner of gun."

"…And it temporarily gives you a new look?" Alex commented with a puzzled expression, but then Shina shrugged and commented "Yeah I don't get that either, there's nothing on that in the history books. Maybe the aura knows just what to give you?"

"Including a midriff?" When Alex said that with some humorous sarcasm, he was surprised to find Shina looking away from him with her face turning bright red, her expression looking quite flustered as she batted her eyelashes repeatedly and murmured "I-It's so embarrassing…When I b-bare my…" She then got so quiet Alex couldn't even hear her, and she stayed that way until they all made it back to the portal to Evening Lake. However, Alex stopped Shina with a hand on the shoulder before they returned.

"Go on ahead Spyro." He said, and the dragon nodded his head and entered the portal while Shina turned around and asked "What's up?"

"Why DO you like this place so much?" He wondered while crossing his arms, and after a couple blinks she turned around and went to the edge of the platform to look out towards the moon with her arms behind her back.

"I love Spyro's whole world, really. But to me, this level embodies everything I love about it. The music, it's so energetic…The atmosphere, it's so vibrant with it's bright moon and the lava's glow basking on the castle walls. A flying battle with two paper dragons, infiltrating a ninja compound, and playing a DOOM clone with a crazy monkey. I could go on, if you want." Shina looked back with a playful smile, but Alex just stood there and replied with eyes widened "No, it's fine."

"Also, this place was the first level in a video game that I shared with my sister." Shina then lowered her head a little and let out a sigh, followed by her looking back and with a grin saying "I think coming here helped me though, I just had an idea."

Alex stayed quiet and let her say her piece with a smile as she put her hands into her pockets "The Sorceress has a library. With all those books about magic and stuff at her disposal, maybe she's got something on the Cosmos Drive in the archives."

"I-It's worth a shot, but first we have to find and defeat her." Alex said, a bit surprised at Shina's current behavior, a feeling he knew he'd likely have many times to come. The girl nodded her head and said with a return to her perky self "Then our next stop is the Midnight Mountain!" With nothing else to do here for the time being they returned to the Evening Lake…

 _Next Time: Divergence Battle_


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Showdown with Scorch**

After their little conversation, Alex and Shina had returned to Evening Lake and exited the water, going to a little tower they hadn't yet entered near where they started out in this world. Inside was Spyro and a few of the people they had met in the smaller worlds. Bentley and Spyro were conversing in front of a bulky blue rocket, and only stopped when they heard the other two approaching.

"Ah, so the gangs all here! Thanks to lil' Greta here, we were able to assemble the rocket needed to take you to Midnight Mountain, where the Sorceress' lair is supposed to be." Bentley explained with his usual politeness, and Spyro let out a sigh of relief before saying "Good, I'm looking forward to roasting her. We'll see you later Bentley, and thanks for the help so far!"

"Oh it was nothing! Just give that Sorceress a good clobbering for us all!" Bentley said before stepping aside so Spyro could get on the platform beneath the rocket. As Spyro did so, the platform rose up into the rocket, securing him before it began to rise up out of the tower. Shina looked at everyone gathered and said "Thanks for your assistance! It was nice meeting you all!" Her words carried a sense of finality, and she didn't linger on them before taking flight after Spyro alongside Alex.

However, as the group waved them off, two people ran up to them while panting to catch their breath. One was Bianca, who had pulled back her hood to reveal her rabbit ears, with the other person being Hunter, who had now been freed from his cage. Bentley turned to the two and looked a little peeved at Bianca in particular.

"Hey now, you're that meddlesome rabbit who captured me! You have quite some nerve to show your face around here again!" Though the yeti was angry at her, Bianca lifted her head up and explained quietly "Y-You have to listen…Spyro and his partners are walking into a trap!" The rest of the people gathered looked at the rabbit with some degree of scorn on their faces, murmuring about not believing her.

It was Hunter who stepped forth and said in his happy-go-luck tone "Hey now, she's not that bad. She saved me from a trap just now. Can't you hear her out?" Bentley raised his brows and commenting "And just who are YOU?"

"Oh! I'm Hunter, friend of Spyro, I'm sure he's mentioned me." Hunter said all too casually as he held his hand out for a shake, but Bentley just raised his brows even more and commented "Not exactly, but I don't see reason to doubt you. You are too…simpleminded to try and pull a deception on us." The yeti then shook hands with the cheetah.

"Ah shucks, you don't have to compliment me!" Hunter said without a care, and then he backed off and let Bianca explain after giving Hunter her heartfelt thanks "Bentley, right? I'm going to need to send you to a location up ahead and pass on some information to Spyro…And help him stop what the Sorceress is sending his way."

As that group was making their preparations to assist the dragon, his rocket was slowly pushing it's way through the skies of the planet, the sunset expanse slowly being replaced by a hazy clouded orange sky with twinkles of stars mixed amongst them. Along the way to their destination a very eerie island appeared…No, calling it an island was wrong. It was the hollowed out carcass of a long creature, possibly a whale judging by the way it's ribs, spine and jaw looked. Where it's innards were was now a lake of blue acid, and near the mouth was a large circular platform.

Against his will, Spyro's rocket was guided towards that island, and Alex and Shina followed with a knowingly worried glance towards each other. Sure enough, as the rocket got close to the platform, there was a creature on the other side of it waiting for them. Compared to even Spike, this creature was thoroughly demonic. It had clawed arms with batwing-like membranes attached to them, a pointed tail connected to his purple furred legs, and his face was devoid of all normality with it's crooked fangs and pupil-less yellow eyes. Even from far away, it cast a shadow that loomed over the battlefield, showing just how huge it was.

However, even with this beast staring down Spyro as he left the safety of his rocket to confront it, the dragon was more focused on the surprising presence of Bentley before him. "Huh? How'd you get here?" He asked, and Bentley shook his head as he gripped his club tightly and explained with dread in his voice "There'll be time for that later…Assuming there is a later, Spyro. The Sorceress plans to use this monster Scorch to destroy every iota of her opposition, beginning with the four of us. Alas, there is no time for ruminating, a battle awaits us…I will endeavor to assist you by means of a steady provision of combustible projectiles. Are you ready?"

"Don't really have a choice here." Spyro spoke sarcastically, and with a nod of his head Bentley turned around to take one glance at the feral beast before rushing to the edge of the arena. Alex and Shina drew their weapons, but the girl had closed her eyes before remarking in a puzzled tone "His aura's not changing this time, but…I have a bad feeling about this." Alex looked at Shina and could hear her humming a little, but he left his thoughts to himself and nodded his head before looking to Scorch.

The monster started off by flying around the outside of the arena, glancing aside before he pauses and folds his wings inward, swinging them out with one vigorous thrust to send a series of giant glowing energy balls across the area. Spyro noted where they would land and charged around to avoid them, while Alex took a more offensive approach and swung the blunt side of his sword at the balls to reflect them back at Scorch, and Shina made a bat of aura to do the same.

Scorch flies up to dodge and then his gullet starts bubbling, his mouth bulging a little later as he suddenly throws up three large red eggs onto the battlefield. They all hatch into those crabs from Lost Fleet and start charging at Spyro, but because they are just as delicate as before he's able to break them with a swift impact from his horns. Scorch widens his eyes but then regains focus to glide to the right, out of the way of one of Alex's fireballs.

Bentley spun his club around to throw a glass orb with a firework inside right at Spyro, who turned and leaped up at it. About 100 tiny fireworks were put into his mouth, puffing his cheeks out as he turned to Scorch and rapidly spit them out in a constant string. They all exploded upon Scorch's chest and made him recoil back with a devilish screech, but only managed to singe his fur a little. Even so, it angered the beast enough to make him drop down onto the arena and try to swipe a claw at the dragon.

Spyro rolled to the right and then charged Scorch in the chest to push him back, but not without being bounced all the way back to the center of the arena. Though with Scorch being stunned Alex and Shina were able to get a clear hit on him with an explosive projectile of fire and aura separately. The beast leaped back into the air and then swung some more energy balls out towards the group, this time focusing a lot of them down towards Spyro.

Shina rushed forward and swung her hands out to create a dome of aura to block the balls, but her barrier breaks once they all explode upon contact. Shina then looks back and gives the dragon a closed-eye smile, but in doing so gave Scorch a chance to swoop down and try and grab her with his claw. Shina backflipped out of the way, but that wasn't something Alex considered as he flew in and jammed his knee right into the monster's face. A burst of lightning was released and Scorch was sent tumbling back.

Alex looked back as he and Shina landed on the ground, and as she gave a smile he looked forward with a blush on his face. Bentley threw a sphere with a green firework at Spyro, and once he jumped to catch it a single large one was stuffed into his mouth. He then walked around Alex and fired off the firework towards Scorch, who flapped his wings hard to get over it, looking out to the group and laughing.

However, through magic, the firework curved back around and struck Scorch in the back, making him jerk forward and let out another pained screech. He then shakes his head and flies back over to the arena, his belly and mouth doing the same thing as before as he then spat out four eggs onto the arena. These gave birth to a different enemy, which were demonic ferrets with TNT crates attached to their guts. They gave out a crazed laugh before they started rocketing towards the group.

Alex stood his ground and swung his arms out to try and push back the ferrets with a powerful gale, but they just leaped off the ground and went over the breeze. As Alex widened his eyes and worked to try something different in the few seconds he had, Shina covered for his mistake by making four hands of aura and smacking the ferrets on their sides to fling them right into the acid, where they melted down before their TNT could explode.

Scorch then landed on the ground and charged the group, ramming them all at once with his massive body to send them flying back to the other edge of the arena. Alex tumbles while Shina puts a hand on the ground and controls her motion with a leap and twirl before landing on her feet. Spyro, meanwhile grinds his claws across the ground, putting himself right into position for Bentley to throw him another green firework.

Scorch turned to the yeti and then charged after him along the ground, but Spyro intercepted him by launching the firework into the side of his wing. The explosion afterwards caught the membrane on fire, forcing the beast to stop and try to shake it off, flailing itself about desperately to no avail. Alex then rushed at the monster and delivered a couple swift kicks of ice to it's face, covering it's vision with a later of frost and forcing it to take it's claws up to rip that off.

Shina, however, gave it now chance and summoned an aura boot right from the ground that pounded the monster in the gut and pushed him towards Bentley, who had his club swung back. Once the jaw of the beast was lined up beside him, he swung it straight up, clobbering him with so much force he was sent flying high over the carcass, where he lingered for a few seconds before gravity plunged him right into an acid bath. The beast was silent as it sunk, it's body being melted apart into nothingness…

Bentley had moved out of the way before the splash of acid touched him, and as he gathered with the rest of the group he swung his club over his shoulder and said "Well that was quite a close call. A high-five for teamwork from all parties involved!" As the yeti raised his hand up, a Dragon Egg fell down in front of Spyro, which made the rest of the group flinch. Once the dragon raised his head up he walked over to it while saying "Guess it flew out when you struck that beast, Bentley."

The egg hatched into a healthy young blue dragon who flipped itself around twice before being sent away safely with magic, and the area fell into silence for a little after. Alex breathed a sigh of relief and then commented "Guess now we can move on. So Bentley, how did you end up here anyways?"

"Ah! Yes! I owe you three an explanation, you see…" As Bentley went on about Hunter and Bianca showing up, Alex looked to Shina, who had her eyes closed currently and was continuing to hum as if deep in thought.

"Looks like your gut feeling was wrong Shina." Alex commented dryly, cracking just a bit of a smirk until Shina gently shook her head, at which point his gaze went towards her right hand which was still gripping the rapier tightly.

"Alex, ya can't see things the way I can…And I knew I was right to be suspicious, cause Scorch is still alive." Once she said that, Spyro and Bentley both went silent and looked at her with a suspecting glance.

"Bah, if that beast is alive he's leagues buried in acid. It's a regrettable demise, and not one he can recover from." Bentley said with some slight sympathy in his voice, and Alex added on to that by stating "Scorch is dead, as he should be. You're probably sensing something else Shina."

"…Dead as he should be?" Shina lowered her hand then leaned towards Alex, whispering into his ear "Not if someone was intending to change history here." That statement, though strangely vague from her, was enough to spark something in Alex's mind.

" _W-Wait a second_ … _A purple aura, red eyes, the ability to make things stronger…"_ As Alex was getting so deep into his memories to connect the dots he squinted his eyes, being disturbed only by a sudden splashing sound and a rather spongy press against the ground. Shina opened her eyes to join the others in watching as a boney claw latched onto the edge of the arena, and the surface of the acid pushed up like a bubble as something emerged from it.

As Bentley had made a point of a moment ago, there's no way Scorch should be alive, and yet there he was. His flesh had all been melted off, leaving not a single muscle or organ intact, and what remained was his abomination of a skeletal form and a gullet filled with an orb of swirling acid. As he stood upright on the edge of the arena, his body was suddenly surrounded by a fiercer purple aura than what had been seen so far, his hollow eye sockets burning bright red as the acid was shot forth from his dripping fangs the moment he let out an echoing roar.

Spyro lowered his head and angrily let out a puff of flames from his nostrils, while Alex quickly summoned his sword again as Shina asked him playfully "So what have we learned?"

"Now's REALLY not the time!" Alex exclaimed before setting his sword on fire and swinging it out, barely nicking Spyro out of recklessness as a wave of fire went out towards Skeletal Scorch. The monster swung it's right claw out and grabbed the fire by it's center, holding it back just long enough for him to crush it down to embers in the air. After a moment of surprise, Alex grit his teeth and exclaimed "Fine, if you want to be like that!"

He then leaped straight at the beast while swinging his sword back, only for them to lift their hat up and spit out a ball of acid as big as the boy. Alex swung prematurely and widened his eyes, and were it not for Shina summoning a barrier of aura in front of him the acid would've left him a skeleton as well. Alex backs off and lands on the ground as the beast runs forward and tries to swing his claws at him with, the tips grinding against the dull side of Alex's blade as he swings to defend himself.

Sparks fly from the blade as Alex managed to file down the beast's claws, though Scorch's strength was also pushing him back. Shina came in again for an assist by leaping him and then dive kicking Scorch in the top of his skull, jogging his boney mind enough to stop the assault. Shina then flipped back to land on the ground and gently swiped her rapier a few times in different diagonals to cut into the monster's bones, backing off only when the beast goes for an uppercut.

Shina had a bit of a smile on her face despite her heart racing, and she said in a glorious whisper "Oh now WHY couldn't this have been a boss?!" Alex focused on Shina with a rather furious glance, as he was also thinking sarcastically _"If only I could be so carefree."_

He then turned just in time to block an attempt from Scorch to grab him, but the beast managed to pull the sword from his hand and throw it towards the acid. In doing so he left himself vulnerable to a string of fireworks launched by Spyro that struck the side of his body and after enough explosions managed to crack his rib cage. Spyro was staying back, something that Alex was glad to see as he held his hand out and telepathically caught his sword before dipped into the acid.

Upon seeing the ribs cracked, Shina grinned and then moved towards those cracks, thrusting her rapier forward and releasing a sparkling blade of aura that shattered some of the weakened bones, but left her rather vulnerable to an acid spit from Scorch. Shina looked up with a bit of surprise in her face as the acid fell towards her, and for a second she froze up until Alex exclaimed her name and then tugged on the back of her shirt to throw her out of the way while he swung his burning sword up to evaporate the acid and deliver a burning cut across the front of his skull.

Alex then leaped back and panted a little, dying down the flames on his blade before looking back at Shina and saying "Don't be so reckless!" As Spyro takes some time to blast Scorch with fireworks, Shina gets onto her feet and brushes her hair back before stating in a humored tone "Even though his weakpoints' exposed?"

Alex glanced at the opening in Scorch's rib cage, but then asked in a puzzled tone "Uh-huh…You sure about that?" Shina raised her brows and said in a nonchalant yet confused manner "Uh, yeah? Haven't you taken chemistry classes?" Alex stood still and hung his head a little, gripping his sword tightly as Shina relaxes her expression and glances aside after thinking what she said over.

"S-Sorry. Idiot Shina, stop being an idiot!" Shina punched herself in the forehead twice and left the skin there reddened, while Alex looked at Scorch and after a few seconds of thought raised his head and widened his eyes with inspiration. As the beast charged at him, Alex leaped past the left side of his body, ducking under the swing of his claw as he threw a charged fireball into the swirling acid. As Alex rolled onto the ground, he looked back and saw the acid brightening, and a second later he scampered out of range as the acid bubble expands and then explodes in a brief but bright flash.

The bones scattered across the arena, at least whatever ones remained, and the acid was all but burned away by the blast. Scorch's skull landed square in front of Shina, but before she tries anything Bentley swings his club down in both hands and turns it to dust. "Ahhh…NOW that's the end of that!" He said while hoisting his weapon over his shoulder, his smile going from cheek to cheek.

"Well, it's the end of that thing anyways. My flames still have a date with the Sorceress." Spyro commented as him and Alex began to make their way for the rocket. Along the way, the boy looked to the yeti and asked "Oh yeah, so how exactly are you going to get out of here?"

"Hahaha, don't push your cerebral cortex worrying about that. Just know I'll still be offering my assistance later on." Bentley said with a humble bow, and after nodding his head with some uncertainty he watched as Spyro entered the rocket and began to take off on the proper path to Midnight Mountain. Shina suddenly nudged against Alex's arm and as he turned his head she quickly whispered "So I think I might have an idea who's causing that strange aura."

"You don't have to tell me, but I don't think it's possible…If it was the two you're thinking of, then they don't mask their presence, I would've sensed them by now." Alex's response earned a puzzled and surprised glance from Shina.

"Eh? If not Towa and Mira from Dragon Ball, then who else could it be?" She inquired while scratching her head, and as the two of them flew after the rocket Alex grit his teeth a bit and replied "Y-You expect me to know that?!"

"I'm just saying, if the aura and MO fits…"

"It means we just need to keep an eye out for those two, assuming our guess is right."

"Weeeeeell, alright, if you say so." Shina had her doubts, but even if Alex wouldn't admit it he did have some as well. There was just something very off about the aura that he couldn't quite put his finger on, and that feeling of confusion and dread would stay with him as they all headed onward to Midnight Mountain…

 _Next Time: Growing Up_


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Maturing in the Midnight Mountain**

With Scorch's defeat, the group was able to fly their way towards the last world on their journey. Unlike Evening Lake, this place was composed of a series of floating islands connected together by glistening marble bridges. A couple of them had rivers of purple acid that flowed off into the abyss that was the planet, and on the largest island there was a tall stone tower with a spiked circular roof that grabbed Spyro's attention. There were a few other landmarks, but they could be explored once they landed.

The rocket and by extension Alex and Shina, landed in a tower with a hollowed out roof. After Spyro got out, he glanced around and then moved forward, widening his eyes as he saw Hunter AND Bianca standing in front of him. The dragon's first reaction is to lean forward and glare at the rabbit while puffing flames from his nostrils, but Hunter holds his paw out and says "Spyro, it's ok! She's on our side now!"

"Really? Once an apprentice, always an apprentice." Spyro bluntly said after glancing at Hunter briefly, and Bianca just calmly raised her hands up and commented "I know you don't trust me Spyro, you have every reason not to…But if we don't stop the Sorceress here, she's planning on killing all of the baby dragons just to get their wings for immortality."

Spyro widened his eyes, while Shina let out a gasp and said genuinely "That's horrible!" Alex nodded his head and commented sarcastically "Great, another immortal witch. Bianca, can't you take us right to her?"

"I-I wish I could, but after Scorch's demise she sealed up her lair with her strongest magic. I could probably break through if you gathered enough Dragon Eggs." Bianca pointed out, but Spyro just gestured his head out and said "Yeah, THAT'S not suspicious."

"It's the only way to give me enough magic to break the barrier. Look, I'll let you decide this on your own, so come to the tower and call for me when you're ready." Bianca then clapped her hands and disappeared in a puff of magic, leaving Spyro to shake his head and looked to Hunter to ask him "Just how did you get caught up with her?"

"Well, I fell into a pitfall and she freed me from the Sorceress' cage." Hunter said in his own simple manner, and Spyro shook his head a bit before stating "Hunter, cut it out, she's bad news."

"Awwww she's not that bad Spyro. She even sent that nice yeti to help you out!" Hunter said with the utmost praise, and Spyro paused for a moment before murmuring "She did? Huh, that explains Bentley's secrecy on the matter."

"Whatever, just stay focused Hunter, we got work to do." Spyro said in a focused manner, and Hunter waved a paw out before replying "You worry too much Spyro, I'm as reliable as can be!"

"So long as you don't fall into anymore pits." Spyro said in a humored tone, and with a nod of his head Hunter ran off to do his own thing. Shina then remarked "Guess we should split up and look for clu-Errrr, Eggs!" Alex glared at Shina for her attempted reference but then just quietly went off to do his own thing. Shina meanwhile briefly joined Spyro in the search for Eggs.

The first thing they saw was a staircase going to the back of the tower they left, and upon climbing it Spyro saw a Dragon Egg on a lone island in the distance. "I'll be right back." He commented before gliding over, and Shina meanwhile finally paid attention to the sky. There was no moon or sun, yet the land was brightened by the nebula-like pink streaks and a few twinkling stars.

"Reminds me of the aurora borealis…" She whispered, and as she closed her eyes she could feel the sky waving around as bright vibrant streaks of aura. Her mind wandered to the past, as she heard her sisters giggles echo in her mind while images of them watching the northern lights flashed on by. Slowly, Shina lowered her head and brushed her hair with a gentle hand, murmuring "I'll make fun stories for you out of these experiences, sis."

"Huh?" Spyro's puzzled remark snapped Shina out of her thought and got her to look to the dragon with a slightly awkward smile, telling him with her hands shaking "I-I was just thinking to myself!"

"That's…fine?" Spyro raised his brows and then commented "Last thing I need is for another ally to lose focus." He then turned around and started going down the staircase, and Shina had something to say to that as she followed.

"Hunter's still your friend, he's not going to give up helping ya out just because he fell in love."

"Wish I could believe that, but Hunter's well…You know." Spyro replied with a nudge of his head back as he got in front of the tower, and Shina scratched the side of her head while chuckling before she pointed out "I get that but…because of that, it makes him someone you can rely on. Letting someone down just isn't his prerogative."

"Guess I'll just have to wait and see. That rabbit better not be mind-controlling him though." Spyro pointed out, only for Shina to argue while laying a hand under her chin "Then she'd have gotten Bentley too. We've got nothing to worry about."

Spyro was left humming to himself about that as him and Shina crossed the eastern bridge, where there was a portal with a thick stone edge connected to a bunch of towering pink crystals. This would lead to "Crystal Islands", and after noting the portal for later Spyro looked to the left and suddenly started chuckling.

"That's pretty great, wouldn't you agree Sparx?" He asked while trying to keep himself together. Shina looked towards another bridge and saw a blue bandage robe wearing midget fumbling around on a sheet of ice, trying his hardest to keep a Dragon Egg in his stubby hands only for it to fly up every time he slips. The strange little man was making some cartoonish grunts every time it hit the ice, and Shina cracked a slight chuckle before mentioning "Guess he went by here."

"He could've stopped the thief himself…Oh well, wouldn't have been as funny for us!" After enjoying the scene a little longer, Spyro charged forth and leaped into the air to tackle the thief with enough force to send him flying, and he quickly wrapped his wings around the egg before he stuck a landing on the edge of the ice and spun around.

Shina walked up while a "10/10" made of aura floated above her right hand, then she dispelled that and started clapping until she could get the egg off Spyro's back and place it down in front of them. After the egg hatched until a healthy dragon, Spyro glanced back and saw a giant stone gladiator helmet with a portal stuck inside of it that led to a place called "Desert Ruins". After noting that he looked to Sparx and said "We've been to some pretty wild locations, haven't we?"

After a few buzzes from the dragonfly Spyro nodded his head and said "Yeah, some ruins sounds pretty simple by comparison." He then looked up and saw Shina glancing to the staircase of the large tower, asking her "Something up?" She turned to look at him and after a gesture replied.

"I'm going to split up, I'll let you know if I find anymore Eggs and gems." Shina then dashed towards the staircase and climbed it while Spyro raised his brows. There were some orange gemstones brightening this fanciful inner chamber, and a large wooden door was on the left side of where Shina entered from…Not that she'd be able to see that at first since it was covered by a small cloud of smoke.

Shina only had to look ahead to see Alex standing in the center of the room panting slightly with both his arms on fire. He swung his right arm up and prepared another fireball, but Shina quietly approached and with a hand coated in aura she clasped his wrist and made Alex's heart skip a beat. Alex turned his head and with an agape expression he was left to listen as Shina commented "You shouldn't exhaust yourself, hehe!"

Alex dispelled his flames and then lowered his arms once Shina let go, telling her as he gestured out "I can't even break down this door. Magic's a pain in the butt." He put his hands into his pockets and sighed, with Shina asking with soft-spoken curiosity "Speaking from experience?"

"Hrrrmmm…" Alex growled and closed his eyes, and Shina stepped back a little as she said with a slight squeak in her voice "Never mind!" She then put her arms behind her back and with a smile mentioned something else related to the door.

"We'll get enough eggs in no time. We haven't even been on this world that long!" Shina proclaimed.

"Four hours, six minutes and fifteen, sixteen, seventeen…" Alex started to count the seconds almost robotically, his tongue clicking against the roof of his mouth until Shina commented "Uhhh, you alright?" which caused him to snap out of it and look away from her.

"P-Point being you're right, we haven't wasted too much time here…Still, the Sorceress should be stopped sooner rather than later. How dare she try to use other species who have done nothing wrong to secure her tyranny of the world, who does she think she is?!" Fire waved out from Alex's body slightly, and Shina's could feel the tension within those flames.

"I-I get the feeling there's a lot I'm missing here, but if it makes you feel any better Alex we KNOW the Sorceress will get her just desserts." Shina spoke cheerfully and swung an arm out in front of her with vigorous energy, and Alex glanced over his shoulder before whispering "Hmph, whatever good that is." After thinking about it some more, he firmed his glare towards the coy looking Shina and asked her something else.

"You aren't going to dig deeper?" He inquired in a pressing manner, and Shina just shrugged her shoulders and gave a smile that said more than any words could've.

"Well…Thanks for that, I mean it." Alex looked forward and sighed, commenting as she eased up a bit "Sorry for holding us up with my moping. Lets clear the worlds out here and put that tyrant down for good." He then began to walk off, but only made it to the staircase before turning around and returning to where he was with a slight blush on his face.

"I-I forgot there was an Egg in the area." He said before pointing to the left meekly, and Shina just ran over to the south edge of the tower and leaped past the acid flowing out until she landed on a lone diamond platform and swooped a hand down to pick up the Egg so she could carry it back over to Alex right as it hatched. The dragon did a cutesy handstand, but Alex just stood there quietly even as both the dragon and Shina smiled at him. Once the dragon was gone, Shina closed her eyes and kept up a forced smile, a slight chuckle coming out of her as she went on to ask "Alex, it wouldn't kill ya to smile at least."

"You know I didn't apologize for holding us up just so YOU could."

"Well I'm just saying, ya can't expect me to believe you're not enjoying this." Shina said with her eyes flung open, and this was followed by Alex folding his arms together and tapping a foot on the ground as he answered dryly "I am, I'm just not as flamboyant about it as you are."

"S&M…!" Shina drew the initials in the air with great punctuation when she was done with each one, and Alex swiftly raised his head up with a completely dumbfounded look and exclaimed "Why are you bringing that up?!"

"What? I'm saying Smiles and Memories…What do you think I'm saying?" Shina inquired with a blank glance towards Alex, who just quickly diverted the subject back on track with "W-Whatever, what are you even talking about?!"

"Can't have smiles without memories, can't have memories without smiles! It's the Shina Aurora motto for life!" After she spoke in an absolutely chipper manner, Alex bluntly told her "That's just idealistic nonsense."

"Idealistic? Maybe! Nonsense? Nah! When you're feeling down, a memory of a time where you smiled can make you feel better. And when you're happy, you create memories to look back on later. I mean without either, wouldn't ya be pretty much empty all the time?" Shina spread her arms out and it made her look like she was ready to embrace life in a hug, but Alex didn't focus on that once she got to the end of her little spiel.

He suddenly felt a hollow chill creeping through his body, and goosebumps formed across his arms. He quickly turned around and said "L-Lets just get moving already!" a little fright slipping in as he quickly made his way back over to the staircase. Shina widened her eyes and then chased after him while saying "W-Wait, I wasn't trying to force you to adopt S&M!"

By the time she had caught up to Alex, Shina didn't try to get the conversation going as she felt how oddly fidgety he was being. Instead she tried to lay a hand on his shoulder, but he quickly turned around with a panicked look on his face. This dissuaded Shina from trying anything else, and she calmly suggested "W-We should find another Egg before we catch up with Spyro…!" while putting on a smile.

"…Oh, yeah, I-I guess we don't want him thinking we're wasting time." Alex blinked a couple times and then spoke as if nothing happened, and that was enough for Shina. Looking around, she saw something that looked like the front of a house with a portal in it that leads to "Dino Mines". Once she recognized where she was she looked to the rocky platforms to the right and with a snap of the fingers climbed up there with a few short hops.

"Hey, he hasn't gotten anything here!" Shina called out, leading to Alex leaped up there after some hesitation. He then saw a cracked surface and quickly held his hand out, focusing on it until it cracked apart all the way to reveal an underground cavern. Shina then leaped down and grabbed some of the gems before going out of sight. Once she returned to the surface she said "Alright, now we got two Eggs and some gems! But, uhhh…"

"I think Spyro's got everything else…" After she had looked around, Alex did the same and realized that she was right. In fact, by squinting his eyes, he could see Spyro gliding over from a secluded island close to where the Crystal Islands were.

"Guess there's one last thing to do." Alex quietly said before him and Shina caught up to Spyro near where they started off. He was looking at a bridge to the right and once he turned to notice his allies he asked "You guys didn't go that way did you?" Once they both shook their heads he turned to the bridge and slightly glanced at Sparx.

"Well, we should know the pattern by now." He said dryly before they walked across the bridge, and unsurprisingly there was Moneybags with yet another cage close to him. Once he saw the group, he let out a gulp and then tried to play it cool with his usual brand of tomfoolery.

"Well, well, Spyro, look what I have here! It's a life-size space monkey action figure with a fully operational laser!" He gestured to the monkey that was wearing a green latex suit with red kitchen gloves and purple helmet, who was currently madly firing his fancy blue laser pistol around at the magic barrier surrounding the cage. He stomped up and down while speaking, but no sound came out.

"Ehehe…feisty little thing ain't he? But for a very small fee, he could be yours! Just give me about…1300 gems."

"You know Moneybags, if you love caging animals so much, there's probably an opening at a zoo somewhere." Spyro said with his usual tongue before gesturing to Sparx to fly over and deposit the gems into the bear's sack as he replied with a chuckle "But then I'd never get to take your mon-errr, enjoy the SPLENDOR of your company Spyro! Yes…that's what I wanted to say."

He then clapped his hands and the cage opened up, with a portal opening in the spaceship-like structure behind the monkey. He stopped his tantrum and instead swiftly switched to excitement as he noticed his surroundings. "Wa-HOO! I'm freeeeeee! Thanks Spyro! Oh say, you ever seen a dancin' bear?! Mwuhahahahaha!" The thought of what he had said left the monkey in stitches with a rather devious laugh.

"Uh…No!" His curiosity piqued, Spyro urged the monkey on, and after he slapped his knee he proclaimed "W-e-ll it's your LUCKY day! Waaaaaatch this…!" He then got more than a little peeved sounding as he turned his blaster onto Moneybags, who steadily stepped back while swinging his paws out, likely regretting all of his life decisions as the money fired a blue laser beam at his feet, filling them with seething hotness that made him let out an incredible yelp of pain.

For the next few seconds, the monkey had Moneybags doing a "jig" in place as his feet were bombarded with lasers. Shina chuckled a little, but instead of staying quiet Alex actually looked at the goofiness going on in front of him and perhaps partially against his will he cracked a tiny smile and started chuckling himself. Shina let out a gasp and looked at Alex with some degree of pride in her sparkling eyes, but upon catching that Alex turned away from her with his face light red and stuttered "Y-You saw nothing!"

"I saw en-ou-gh!" Shina said in a teasing tone, which turned Alex's face so red he might as well have been a tomato, which was the point where the girl dropped the matter as Moneybags had scurried off and the monkey was now rapidly speaking to them.

"That bear had no style or grace, low stamina too. Oh well, had a lot more ammo left, huehuehue!" After he laughed so hard that he squeaked the monkey said "Anyways I've heard all about your battle against the Sorceress and I gotta say COUNT ME IN ON THAT! You've been kicking all that Rhynoc butt and I've been stuck inside a cage cramping like nobody's business! Oh! Speaking of Rhynocs, I really need to get back home and stop that invasion force, but you're welcome to come see me anytime! Woo-hoo, keep up the good fight Spyro and friends!"

The monkey then runs to the portal, but turns around and with a snap of his finger said "Oh and if you see the Sorceress, tell that wrinkly crone that Agent 9's gonna be making her dance preeeeetty soon!"

"You bet!" Spyro proclaimed, and with a smile as wide as can be the monkey ran into his portal and vanished. The dragon then looked at his allies and said "Might as well go make sure he'll make it, he looks like a pretty good ally!" The three were in agreement, so they quickly went into the portal to Agent 9's Lab.

 _Next Time: Loonier than a Monkey_


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Assault at Agent 9's Lab**

After flying through a sky that was lit by a sun breeching the thin layer of clouds, the group ended up descending towards a rather odd island floating in the middle of a barely visible sea. There was an observatory tower in the center surrounded by some rocky ridges, and there were some sandy beaches surrounding the tower. The group were forced to one of those secluded cubes, but unlike Bentley's this one was purely metallic and had an almost alien feel to it.

Agent 9 stood in the center of the room and turned around, immediately giggling before he told them "Well well! Can't say I expected you to come here so soon! But oh, what's that? I think I heard a Rhynoc scurrying around! Let me at 'em, I'll blast them to ashes!" The monkey's trigger finger was twitching, and Spyro slowly took a couple steps back.

"Hahaha, I kid ya, I kid ya! But seriously, don't EVER take a week vacation in a cage if you know what's good for ya Spyro, next thing you know your home is infected by Rhynocitosis!" The monkey's eyes bulge out a little as he speaks, but his fingers are calmed. Spyro raised his brows and asked "Rhynocitosis?"

"Yeah, real ugly stuff! Not to worry though, this doc's got some medicine, and it's high in vitamin B-laster!" Agent 9 then turns around and walks through the nearby passage, and Shina then looks to Spyro and tells him "Hey Spyro, you've probably been running around for a while. Why don't you take a break for a few minutes while we help the monkey out?"

"That doesn't sound too bad. Seems you can handle things here, I'll just take a nice little dragon nap back at Midnight Mountain." Spyro said with surprisingly little resistance, and as he's left to be taken away by some magical force Shina and Alex start to head to the tunnel. Once Alex is certain the dragon was gone, he inquired "Didn't want him seeing the Professor too soon?"

"He also looked tired. Can't hide that from my senses." Shina said with a playful smile and chuckle, and Alex just shrugged his shoulders acceptingly as the two entered the beach area. There, they found Agent 9 standing in front of a small teddy bear-like person wearing a lab coat and small lens glasses. He had big grey eyebrows and ragged hair that stretched to his backside, and in his hands were a pencil and a notebook.

This bear looked to his company and said in a groggy but intellectual manner "Oh my, I wasn't expecting more guests! I suppose I have you two to thank for freeing my favorite pupil." Shina held her hands behind her back and bowed forward, answering honestly "It wasn't us mister, you have Spyro to thank for that."

"Spyro? Ah, so he's around here anyways! I've been trying to find him, but it seems I miscalculated the coordinates in the Superportal…Hmm, perhaps my information was outdated." The Professor scratches the side of his head with the lead of his pencil as he looks as his notes, but an impatient Agent 9 says "That's not important! It's blasty blasting time!"

"Patience Agent 9, those Rhynocs aren't going anywhere…Unfortunately for my research. I must say, you two look very…peculiar." The Professor nudges his glasses a little and focuses on the two for a little, but he just shook his head and continued "Oh it's probably nothing. If you're allies of Spyro, then perhaps you could help me clean out these Rhynocs."

"Sure thing!" Shina proclaimed, and Agent 9 widened his eyes and after running in front of the Professor he said "Oh come ON, I don't need any help! I'm the best sharpshooting monkey this side of the Forgotten Realms!"

"You're the ONLY one, Agent 9." The Professor said rather bluntly, followed by him bringing to attention "Besides, you're still a little too reckless at times. Even though you got a 100% hit rate on your last test…" Agent 9 turned around and gave a coy thumbs-up, which earned a rather powerful glare from the Professor as he finished up.

"You got that from hitting every single part of the training facility! Last thing I need is for you to damage my research." When the Professor was done venting frustrations, the monkey went beside him and slapped his back while stating in a light tone "Oh it'll be fine! Hahahahaha! Just let me at them!"

"Go at it Agent 9, but if I see even ONE byte of data out of place I'm cutting you off from your blaster for a week." The Professor warned, and after leaping and slapping a knee the monkey let out a joyous holler and sprinted across the nearby bridge towards the beach. The Professor then shook his head and murmured "Should've known better than to evolve a monkey…"

The Professor then raised his pencil up and with a press of his eraser he suddenly warped away, joining Agent 9 at the end of the bridge. Alex blinked a couple times while Shina said "That was cool! Alright, lets do this!" She then raised her arms up and pressed the Gunslinger Drive stone, changing her appearance up in a flash of light. Alex widened his eyes a little while she summoned a couple pistols of aura into her grasp.

Closer to her in this new form, Alex could see the details more clearly, and her presence felt much warmer. He looked away and blushed rather profusely, but even though she looked so different the smile she gave to him confirmed that nothing else had changed about Shina. "Hey, don't you have some firearms you can use?" She inquired excitedly.

"U-Uhhh…No? Look, just take care of business here, I'll watch." Alex stuttered and after a few glances he stuck to looking aside while folding his arms, as Shina merrily trotted over to Agent 9, who had to hear just a little more from the Professor before he could continue.

" _I need to see what this 'Drive' of hers does in person…And maybe I'll better understand how she has fun."_ Alex went silent as he followed his partner, who walked up in front of Agent 9 and said "Hey! I'll help ya out with the Rhynocs, we can even make a contest out of it!"

"Hohohohoho! That's funny…! Look, I don't need any he-he-help…?!" Agent 9 was left with his eyes wide, as though a banana was dangled in front of them…If bananas were shaped like the guns in Shina's hands. Agent 9 saw a radiance around the girl before she snapped out of it and asked "Now where did you acquire those firearms?! I'd trade you the Professor's whole island to get me some of those!"

"Agent 9!" The Professor proclaimed while putting his hands on his hips and glaring, but the monkey was too focused on what was in front of him. Shina smiled with her eyes closed and said "Sorry, can't give them to you, I created them myself. I'm sure your weapon could hold up to them though."

"Oh you bet they could! You got yourself a challenge then! Five points for every Rhynoc, double the points for knocking their weapons out first! Hoohoohoo, this will be FUUUUUN!" Agent 9 then pointed his blaster ahead while Shina held hers out and commented "Lets not mess things up too much though. Ten point deduction for any unnecessary damage."

"Lets get started then…Time to rip some Rhynocs a new one! Woo hoo hoo!" Agent 9 then started rapidly firing laser blasts at some cardboard props of Rhynocs, blowing them up and knocking out some actual Rhynocs that were hiding behind them. At the same time, Shina used her scouter to sense for other Rhynocs and fired directly at them with aura bullets. Needless to say the beach was left in chaos as the Rhynocs scurried around trying to escape, only for them to be launched around by the blasts that hit the sand.

"Muahahahahaha…! Burn Rhynocs, BUUUUUUUURN!" Agent 9 stopped his attacks for a moment to rub his cheeks against the side of his blaster, lovingly remarking "I missed using you so much baby…don't ever get stuck in a cage with me again!" He then widened his eyes and quickly fired at three Rhynocs when he saw Shina take out two of them with a gleeful smile on her face.

As Alex stood beside him the Professor nudges his glasses and mumbles "Oh I knew I should've sprung for the warranty on this island…" He then looked back and saw Alex looking at him, commenting in a relatively pleased tone "You appear to be a reasonable young lad. So what world are you two from?"

"H-Huh? Uhhh, we're from this world…?" Alex said with some hesitance, and the Professor cracked a smile and said "Now now, it's not nice to lie. You and your friend clash too much with our world." He let out a chuckle after his casually spoken observation, and Alex folded his arms against his chest and focused on the Professor for a while.

As Professor wrote on his notebook, Alex couldn't help but see a little swirl of hair on his head and swirls on his glasses, but shook that off when the little man addressed him with "Either way, a friend of Spyro is a friend of mine."

"J-Just like that?" Alex stammered after letting out a gulp, and the Professor nodded his head. Gesturing out, Alex then said to him "I guess that makes sense, since he saved your home."

"That he did…Wouldn't have been able to stop that grumpy old Ripto without him. From what I heard, he's been cleaning up this world pretty well too. That'll make it what, his third one? Hmmm, I really need to keep better track of my notes…" As the Professor flips through his notes, he looks up and sees that Agent 9 and Shina have already cleared the area of Rhynocs and had gone through what was once an active electric barrier. The beach was scorched or filled with divots from all the shots that had gone off.

"Oh dear…I better keep up with them. We'll continue this conversation a little later." He then teleported off ahead, and as Alex sees some bright sparks from Shina's bullets hitting Rhynocs he stared blankly on ahead and let out a sigh before he went to catch up with them. Along the way though, what the Professor had said about Spyro got him thinking.

"Saved the world three times…And I only saved the Mushroom Kingdom twice. Hmmm, and Spyro is probably as old as me." Alex was left sighing, his heart heavy as he eventually caught up with Shina and Agent 9. They had gotten to the entrance to the laboratory after shooting a switch that locked a door letting the Rhynocs in, and the Professor was nearby looking at the broken circuitry of the switch with a sweat drop trickling down the side of his head.

"Well…It could be worse. Just need to clip a couple wires back together, reverse the electron flow…" He wrote that down for later along with some other stuff, as Shina looked back at Alex and asked him "Hey Alex! How many points do we both have?"

"Huh? How do you expect me to know?" Alex dryly inquired after lifting his head up, and Shina shook hers a little as she wiggled a pistol out beside her head and faced the monkey to tell him "Well I guess it's a good thing I was paying attention. You're at 45, I'm at 40."

"Hahaha, told ya no one is better than me at the blaster! Did you see the look on those Rhynocs' faces when they realized they were outgunned? Hoooo boy oh boy I should get locked in a cage more often, it makes the 'zing zing' sounds of the laser fire sweeeeeeter on the ears after!" Agent 9's enthusiasm gave Shina a bright smile, but she told him with some playful cockiness "It's not over yet. There's still half an island to clear out."

"…Oh good heavens…" The Professor murmured with droopy eyes, then as he nudged his glasses back up he began to walk into the laboratory, which had was lined with a few computers on the walls, a couple of the screens showing astronomy stuff.

"Oh hey, this is neat! Maybe there's something on one of these screens about the Cosmos Drive!" Shina walked over to the closest computer and was about ready to start typing when the Professor stammered "W-What are you blabbering about? And don't touch my stuff!"

"Besides Shina, the signal doesn't seem to extend beyond this planet." Alex commented, and Shina looked over her shoulder and said with a finger raised over a button "You suuuuure you want to assume that?"

"No! No! Get back to work!" The Professor threw his hands up and then walked over to Shina, pushing her away from the computer as she just blinks a couple times. He then let out a sigh and looked up, where he finally noticed something odd on one of the computers.

"Oh dear, it seems there are some Rhynocs hiding in this very room. I suppose I'll leave that to you two. I'd recommend your sniper mode, Agent 9." The Professor then pressed a button and a platform in the center of the room rose up along with some steps. The monkey climbed those while Shina did a fancy backflip to the top, combining her pistols to create a sniper rifle of aura. Agent 9 looked a bit impressed but bluntly remarked "Now you're just showing off. I'm still going to beat you!"

Rhynocs began to pop up from behind some of the elevated displays, and Shina cocked the sniper perfectly in front of her face and began firing while Agent 9 did the same with his blaster. Alex stood beside the Professor, who was shaking his head and mumbling something about the excitement being too much.

"So Professor…Can I ask you something?" Once Alex had his attention he glanced away and commented "Odd question, b-but are there any records of your planet being visited by a person who might be the same species as me?"

"Errr…None that I've ever dug up. Any particular reason why you asked?" The Professor glanced the boy's way, but he just averted his gaze by looking around the room before he replied "If the answer's no, it's fine. I-I was just sating curiosity." Surprisingly the old man didn't push Alex further on that, and Alex was left closing his eyes as a hundred thoughts whirled through his head like an unstoppable tornado.

" _A professor with world crossing technology…An inspiring childhood hero…An immortal and cruel sorceress…"_ Alex didn't like crossing those ideas together, as it led to him then thinking _"Did the Elemental Overlord once consider this world to house his powers?"_ Then he grit his teeth and shook a little in anger.

" _Come on, you're in my body! You have to be listening, so answer for once!"_ His frustrations were left echoing in a void, stopped only by the relaxed sounds of Shina's voice as she leaped down and exclaimed "All clear!"

"Ah, excellent! Now we just need to check the machine room…Oh goodness, I hope I'm not right on my assumptions…" He then teleported off again, while Shina looked to Agent 9 and said "Ha, now we're tied 75 to 75! You go on ahead, I'll catch up soon." The monkey cracked a wild grin and then went on ahead to the next passage beyond the steps. Shina turned to look at Alex and addressed him in a peppy manner.

"Your aura feels tense. Something up?"

"Nothing you need to worry about. You're having fun so far it seems." Alex commented, and after Shina paused and stared at him enough to get him to raise a suspecting brow she replied in a humored tone "Uhh yeah, I've been having fun this whole time. Where've you been?"

"You know what I mean…" Alex murmured before he went on his way while Shina followed, eventually with them catching up as Agent 9 and the Professor are in a room filled with strange generators…But the tops of them are being occupied by nests full of ravenous long necked blue vultures. Alex just shook his head and stepped aside, and Shina and Agent 9 cleaned the room out before the Professor could explain himself. But when all was said and done they at least got a Dragon Egg from one of the nests.

"Oh yeah I guess we were collecting those here…That took a while." Alex commented as the egg hatched and was carried away by magic.

"Well, at least the lab isn't in too bad of a shape. One more stretch of beach outside and we should be good…" The Professor said with relief in his voice as he pressed a nearby button to shut off an electric gate, followed by him teleporting away. Outside the lab, the Professor now stood in front of a small red vendor that deposited a steel plated bomb with a ring around it.

"Alright Agent 9, you've been doing a good enough job so far that, with a great deal of hesitation, I am going to allow you to use the explosives."

"Wooo hoo hoo! Gonna end this off with a bang, bang, BANG!" Agent 9 swiped a bomb off the ground and lobbed it up and down casually in his palm. Shina turned her sniper rifle into a grenade launcher with two barrels and raised it up, firing a grenade over a wall to the left so the device powering the nearby barrier would break. She then looked at Alex and said "You take the left, we'll finish up on the right!"

"Guess I should've expected to do something here. Alright, lets finish this up." Alex went to the left while the sounds of excitement from Shina and Agent 9 entered his ears for a few seconds. On the left side of this beach were some Rhynocs in motor boats on the water. With his eyes closed, Alex holds his hand out and summons a few waves to bury them in the sea, but then flicks some fingers back to send the Dragon Egg one of them were holding over to him.

After watching it hatch into a baby dragon wearing sunglasses and surfer shorts, Alex heads on back with his arms hung beside his hips, and to his surprise the area had already been cleared of Rhynocs. Agent 9 and Shina were on a marble platform looking out to where they started, and the sea looked particularly pretty with the way the sun was shining upon it. The Professor teleported in with a smile on his face before he said "Excellent work you two! All my data's still intact and the Rhynocs are gone! Here, take this Dragon Egg I found lodged in the bomb dispenser."

But the egg hatching wasn't the focus of the two who did most of the work, as they looked at each other, Shina returning to her normal form as she sighed and said "Darn, it seems you beat me out by ten points Agent 9." The monkey slapped his knee and exclaimed proudly "Ha ha HA, I knew it! Never test the power of a monkey with a laser blaster! But say, you weren't too bad yourself! We should team up again sometime, you and your nice set of ballistics combined with my killer monkey instincts will make any Rhynoc go crying for their Sorceress mommy!"

"I'm sure we''ll be teaming up again pretty soon! It was fun though, so thanks for going along with it!" Shina said with arms folded behind her back. She then looked to Alex and said "Well, guess we should be getting back to Spyro!"

"Say 'hi' to him for me when you get a chance! I'll be here in the meantime working on the Superportal…" The Professor then buried his face in his notes, but as Alex and Shina went to the portal out of here Shina glanced back and said "Oh yeah Professor…Why is this place called Agent 9's Lab if this is YOUR island?"

The Professor suddenly snapped up and glared at Agent 9, who chuckled with a grin on his face as he said "N-Now wait a second, I can explain!"

"Agent 9...Were you messing with portal names AGAIN?!" The Professor whipped out his pencil threateningly, and with his attempt at a demure laught the monkey backed up and said "N-Not at all! I swear it wasn't me…It was uhhh…That other bear, yeah!"

Shina cracked a grin and gave a slightly mocking chuckle, and Alex looks at her and murmurs "A-Are you being a sore loser?" The girl closed her eyes and said playfully "Why I have no idea what you are talking about silly!" She then quickly leaped into the portal, leaving Alex with his mouth partially agape before he shook his head and jumped into the portal as well, as the Professor argued with his pupil about what he'd done…

 _Next Time: A Quick Revisit_


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Calming on the Crystal Islands**

After returning to Spyro, the group went back to the Evening Lake and split up to take care of a couple things. Shina cleaned out the Agent 9 portal in Fireworks Factory with the monkey helping her out, while Spyro and Alex brought Sparx to a sign with his picture on it so he could go into a secret realm only he could fit into in order to grab a Dragon Egg and some gems. Once Alex managed to peel Shina away from the Fireworks Factory, they returned to Midnight Mountain and made their way for the closest portal that led to Crystal Islands.

The violet sky of this world had a gigantic crescent moon brightening the towering crystal bunches in the distance, and the rest of the sky was littered with beautiful stars. There was an overall mystical feel to this land, especially as they descended towards the blue grounded floating isles that litter the area. There were some lamp posts with glowing gem lights, and every island had some water on them that sparkled like the stars.

Right as they landed, there was a teddy bear-like creature with softer colored fur than the Professor, and these people had blue beards and eyebrows along with some wizard-y pink pajamas. Fittingly, that bear held a magic wand with a gold star at the top. Spyro opened his mouth but the bear immediately put a finger to his mouth and spoke "Shhh…Spyro, don't tell anyone but we stole some magic from the Sorceress."

"That seems dangerous." Spyro whispered in a slightly concerned tone.

"Probably, but that's why we're all hanging out here…Unfortunately we messed up and now all the indigenous creatures have been turned to crystal. Could you deal with them for us?" The bear asked politely, and Spyro nodded his head. The bear moved aside and have the group a chance to look ahead. There were octopuses in the water, flying beavers beyond that, and some tall oddly shaped pink crystal monsters with pincer hands and wild tendril-like hair.

"So much for all the creatures being made of crystal…" Alex dryly said before Shina raised a finger and corrected him while taking on the voice of an authoritative teacher "Actually, the bear said indigenous, so the beavers and octopuses were put here by the Sorceress."

"Well then that just means the bear magicians aren't hiding very well. You know, if they stole some magic from the Sorceress, we could probably ask them to help us break down the barrier guarding the lair." Alex pointed out while looking at Spyro, who nodded his head once and replied "Worth a shot, lets try and find the leader."

"You mean The Magnificent Marvello? Oh, he's on the farthest island from here." The bear commented casually, and that would be advice the group would take to mind as they went on their way. The first thing they did after clearing the island of enemies was to glide over to the second one, where a couple more of those pink crystal creatures stood beside a large blue crystal bear. Spyro and Alex were a second away from attacking when Shina exclaimed "Wait!" so loudly that even the crystal beasts looked surprised.

Shina then closed her eyes enough to appear in thought and gestured towards the bear, telling it "You can be called Crystal Beast Sapphire Bear…And you pink guys can be called Crystal Beasts…Uhhh…Amethyst Palm-Tree Crabs?" After Alex blinks a couple times he draws his sword and swings it out to overheat the beasts with a wave of fire so they'd explode while he inquired bluntly "How would you even know about those?"

"I watched the series, duh!" Shina said so off-handedly that it offended Alex a bit, and he bluntly asked her "That raises further questions and you know it."

"Or maybe I just don't get what you're asking?" Shina said in a rather sincere manner, followed by Alex blinking a couple times more before letting out a sigh and saying with a grit of his teeth "How could your people have gotten access to stuff made on Earth?"

"You know, Spyro's already gone on ahead." Shina pointed out with a chuckle, and Alex looked to see the dragon walking inside of the island's mountains. As Alex looks rather puzzled by this Shina points out with a chuckle "He's probably gotten fed up listening to us."

"Just tell me along the way!" Alex bluntly proclaimed before moving to catch up with the dragon, and Shina giggled some more before folding her arms behind her back and casually strolling behind Alex.

"Well, we just have someone who makes copy of Earth wares and puts them in our gigantic mall for us to purchase."

"What, with Aura Bucks?" Alex commented in his dryly humored tone, and he slightly cracked a smile until Shina responded seriously "Uhh no, we just use a merit system. Good deeds give you more merits, which means you can purchase more things from the store. Every birthday doubles your current amount of merits, and-"

"Ok I get the point." Alex stopped her with a frustrated sounding tone, but as she went quiet after a peep Alex closed his eyes and thought _"So good deeds as a currency? …Must feel nice to have earned that stuff on your own."_

Once the two had caught up with Spyro, he had already talked to another bear, who used magic to lift some crystal platforms out of the water nearby. "Sorry for holding you up Spyro!" Shina apologized with a bow, and the dragon looked back and said "Huh? I thought you guys were behind me" making the two recognize that they were wrong about Spyro's intentions.

"Anyways hurry up, these won't last for long!" Spyro proclaimed before leaping up each platform to get to the ledge up top, and the other two made it up just in the nick of time. Returning outside, the group found a Dragon Egg on a platform out to the right, and thus Shina made a bridge of aura so Spyro could get it and return safely.

"Sparx I'm telling you, we're going to need ANOTHER trip to Dragon Shores after this is over with." The dragon said in a slightly exhausted sounding manner, and after the dragonfly buzzed a response Spyro said "You had to remind me of the festival…I'm sure they won't mind if I'm gone a day or two."

"Festival?" Alex and Shina murmured, and Spyro told them "Yeah, every time the Dragon Eggs hatch there's a festival to give them their own dragonflies."

"Oh right, THAT thing." Alex murmured in a disgruntled manner while Shina took on a more optimistic outlook and with hands clasped together said "I'm sure you'll have fun Spyro!"

"150 baby dragons running around? Yeah, that won't be exhausting for anyone involved." Spyro shook his head a little but was secretly cracking a smile, not that Alex noticed that as he leaned towards Shina and whispered "We REALLY should prevent that whole mess from happening."

"Alex you can't just use game knowledge to assume reality will be the same. I mean who does that?" Shina said with a casual gesture beside her face, and an irritated Alex glares at her and thinks _"You tell me Ms. Addicted to Fireworks Factory!"_ Moving on to the next island afterwards, the group found another bear standing around yawning.

"Ha…I have this magic thing all figured out compared to those amateurs! Waaaaaatch this!" The bear then spun his wand out towards a lone stone altar floating in the water, magical sparks flying in a straight line as they converge to swirl into a whirlwind in the center of the altar, and the bear smugly smiled as he spun his wand around. The group went towards the altar to move on, but the whirlwind vanished before they could enter it. After pausing for a later, the group glared at the bear and saw his smugness deflate into embarrassment. Alex shook his head a bit and snapped his fingers to make a whirlwind that could carry the group up to the next part. Though speaking of smug bears, who else would be waiting for them after but Moneybags?

"Ah Spyro! Did you know I happen to be a talented amateur magician? MY specialty is the, errr…Amazing Extending Bridge trick! I'd love to show you, but I first need a meager donation of…1000 gems?" Moneybags was quite jolly in his voice, but Alex just stamped his foot on the ground and spoke out "1000 gems for a BRIDGE? Shina or I could make that for free! You know what you dumb bear, we're not going to pay this time!"

"N-Now hang on a second here! You wouldn't want to tempt a magician! One wrong step, and I could turn any one of you into a blue hedgehog!" Moneybags choked a bit on his words, but otherwise spoke confidently. Perhaps desperation was getting to the bear after all this time, but Shina still couldn't help but play along with an incredibly shocked expression as she clasped her hands against her cheeks and exclaimed "Oh no Spyro! Everything will go downhill if that happens!"

"You're bluffing Moneybags." Spyro said after giving an odd glance to Shina, and after the dragon let out a flare from his nostrils the bear trembled before saying with a smirk "O-Oh I assure you this is no joke! So what will you do now?" A second of silence was broken by Alex thrusting his right hand out and causing a bridge of stone to extend out to the next island. He then sassily snapped his fingers at Moneybags and began to cross the bridge, with the others following close behind. Moneybags stood with mouth agape and after a while his monocle fell off his face.

Once on the other side Shina was about to say something, but only the gasp of her inhale was enough to get Alex to reply bluntly "No excuses this time Shina, having to let that bear make the bridge would've been as insulting as the thing with the stairs back in Charmed Ridge." Shina clamps her mouth shut until Alex was done, then tells him with a chuckle "Doesn't matter, ya could've let him have the money. You know why…"

"But Shina, you can't use video game knowledge to assume reality will be the same!" Alex said in a girly voice that was meant to imitate Shina…To a shockingly accurate degree. Shina blinked a couple times but then eased her expression into a relaxed smirk before pointing out "Hey now, that's not very nice."

"I'm just saying." Alex then replied with a shrug of his shoulders, and Shina simply sighed and laid some fingers against her forehead while shaking her head. While they were busy debating with themselves over this, Spyro had already taken out a crystal bear and asked the nearby magician bear to use his magic in order to make a bridge of gem platforms over a small pond.

"Guys, we're on a time limit again, hurry up!" Spyro proclaimed in a laid-back manner, but that snapped the two back into focus so they could cross the bridge over to yet another magician bear standing by his lonesome.

"Whew…Alright, are YOU the Magnificent Marvello?" Spyro inquired after catching his breath, and the bear perked his head up and said "Ah yes, that I am! What can I do for you young Spyro?"

"We heard from the others that you stole some magic from the Sorceress. We've run into a barrier of yours back in Midnight Mountain and thought maybe you could aid us in breaking it." Alex stated rather casually, but the bear widened his dotted eyes and then with a nervous chuckle waved his hand and said "O-Oh…Funny story about that actually."

"What?" Alex said in a dreading tone as he glared at the bear, who swung his wand around and said "T-That was actually a joke…You see, I got these discount wands from a gift store and thought it'd be funny to roleplay as wizards, so I convinced my buddies that I got these from the Sorceress' secret vault."

"But some of them were using magic…" Spyro said in a rather bewildered tone, and the bear tilted his head and said "Funny, that shouldn't be happening…Then again, might have something to do with the Dragon Eggs you've been collecting."

"And the crystal beasts?" Shina then inquired, and the bear said in a jolly tone "Oh they are just the local wildlife. They're harmless unless you get within ten feet of them!" Spyro and Alex looked aside, with the dragon cracking a nervous grin while the bear drooped his ears and let out a simple "Oh…Oh dear…"

After a little while of awkward silence, the bear reached into his pajamas and pulled out a Dragon Egg, handing it off to Spyro and saying "W-Well…I'm sure the population will come back once you leave. Just think nothing of it." As the egg hatched, Spyro chuckled and said nonchalantly "That's usually how it goes." The bear then steadily backed up and turned around, making a sprint for the portal that appeared in the nearby stone building, likely out of guilt.

Once Spyro raised he brow he glanced back and said "So much for that plan, guess we'll go back to finding eggs." Shina said happily "Splitting up time then! Alex, go to the right, Spyro and I will check the left!"

"Yeah yeah, I'll see what I can find." Alex brushed a hand out as he turned and went to the ledge at the right of the island, gliding off it to do his own thing. Shina and Spyro then went to the left and found a magic portal hidden in a cave. Going through it, the two found themselves in a rounded out stone temple with a path made of some shiny blue material in front of them.

"Wonder what's up with this?" Spyro said before approaching the material, but the moment he put even one claw down he slipped forward and was forced to start sliding along the ground. "W-Whoa!" His surprise was drowned out by his departure further down the slide, and Shina ran to the edge of it and stared at it with a glimmer in her eyes while letting out a gleeful squeal.

She then threw herself stomach first at it and began to slide down after Spyro devoid of any friction against her body. "Whee hee hee! It's an ice slide! This is so exciting!" She proclaimed as she held her arms up high and let herself get carried through the winding twists and turns, her heart racing merrily until she made it to the end. She paused for a little then put on a pouty face, standing up and looking as Spyro had already found a Dragon Egg.

Shina however quickly looked up to the top of the slide and held her arm out longingly towards it, but after a few seconds clasped her hand into a fist and laid it against her chest while commenting "I'll just have to make the memory last…" and her and Spyro left the area through the nearby portal.

While those two were doing their thing, Alex was busy dealing with the outer parts of the islands. He was flying around, picking up whatever gems were hidden atop the mountains and stuff along with getting a Dragon Egg atop one of the buildings. After that he paused and with hands in his pockets let out a sigh.

"This is really a drag now…How did I ever find this fun?" He grumbled a little with his teeth grit, but then murmured to himself "Just have some patience Alex, there's only a few places left to go. But I swear if there's no Cosmos Drive information in the Sorceress' library…"

He then looked to the left and saw one of those blue egg thieves riding a tiny plane, and the thief seemed to have done the same as they waved their hands up and taunted with "Nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh!" in a very squeaky manner. Alex closed his eyes, casually waved a hand out, and threw one of the smaller crystals at the thief's plane to destroy it. He then flew forward and caught the Dragon Egg from the explosion, landing on a lone island and placing it down in front of him.

Once it hatched, Alex walked around the corner and saw a Bentley portal, but only gave it a brief glance before whispering "I'll just wait for Shina…She's better at this stuff." Though coincidentally, Shina and Spyro showed up right after he said that.

"You wanted me?" Shina said in her perky manner as she landed on the ground in front of him, and Alex glanced aside with a blush on his cheeks before mentioning "T-There's just one last Egg to get, and I figured you'd like to see Bentley again."

"Oh how nice! Lets go take care of this together!" Shina grabbed Alex by his hand and dragged him into the Bentley portal, with Spyro raising his brows and saying "Guess I'll just wait for them back at the portal out of here…" Thankfully for him there was a Superflight power-up nearby that would allow him to fly right back to that island.

With the wacky duo, they have found Bentley on the opposite side of the portal, standing in the middle of an island floating in the center of an empty atmospheric void. The only other person there was another "magician" bear, but the yeti focused more on turning around to face the duo upon hearing their footsteps.

"Ah, fancy meeting you both again! I was just about to enjoy a magic show on this breezy midsummer's night! Would you care to join me?" Bentley gestured a hand before his chest with Shina stating as she let go of Alex "Sure thing Bentley! And hey, we'll probably end up finding a Dragon Egg too!"

"That's the spirit lass! Lets go see what these ursines have to offer!" The three then walked over to the bear, who was nervously twitching so much it was a wonder he wasn't collapsed on the ground.

"Something the matter, my good sir?" Bentley inquired with an offering gesture, and the bear said "Oh darn…I was trying to perform a magic show, but something went awry. Now there's a bunch of moles causing trouble and my fellow magicians have gone underground to stop them. If only there was someone with a big club who could just whack them…"

Bentley casually swings his out while Shina makes one out aura and cracks a smile, and Alex just folds his arm and looks at them both before ruining the moment with "If it wasn't obvious, they got you covered."

"Thank you so much! Just make sure not to hit my friends." The bear gave that warning before Bentley and Shina went down the steps to the open stage, and the ground pushes open slowly with a cartoonish mole popping out a moment later. Bentley and Shina use their clubs to pound any mole flat into a pancake before they poof out of existence

Shina closes her eyes and uses her aura vision to sense the moles amongst the bears, and alerts Bentley before he ends up hitting the bears coming out. The stage becomes a cacophony of moles and bears running around, and the pounding of clubs against the ground eventually covered the area in a cloud of dirt and dust. The chaos went on for a full minute before Shina leaped out of the cloud with some dirt on her face.

"Well, I think that wraps that up!" She proclaimed happily, and the cloud subsided as Bentley climbed the steps. The bear looked out and saw that no more moles were popping up, and with a clap of his hands he said "Splendid! I can't thank you both enough for this! Here, have a Dragon Egg I found in the garbage can." The bear then tossed out an egg and ran for the stage to patch it up, and after it hatched Bentley had something to say.

"Well, guess I'll have to wait for the magic show. Tell Spyro I said hi when you get the chance, alright?" The yeti bowed his head, and Shina held a hand out and said "Hopefully we can meet one more time, alright?" The two shook hands and Bentley nodded his head in agreement. Shina and Alex then went back to Spyro, and the group departed from the Crystal Islands…

 _Next Time: The Tomb Raider Rip-Off_


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Danger in the Desert Ruins**

The group entered the portal to the Desert Ruins and left the land of eternal night to enter one bathed by daylight that curiously had no sun. The floating island the group was heading to hovered very high above a massive lake of green acid and had a large marble built ruins with rugged pillars and a few of those broken giant stone gladitator helmets partially buried in the sandy plains around it. The acid flowed out in rivers and fell off the island as waterfalls.

Soon after they landed, Shina squinted her eyes as she looked to the ruins, and gasped "Wow! That looks like something out of those Greek history books I've read! The structure is probably really well-defined by it's curved ridges, and the fact of the matter is…" Alex rolled his eyes and followed Spyro towards an anthromorphic mouse wearing glasses, a green t-shirt and blue pants.

"Ah, welcome! You must be Spyro! I've heard quite a lot about you! Say…could you perhaps find my girlfriend, Tara? She went off to raid the Tomb of the Stone Golem and I haven't seen her since." The mouse said with a slight cockney accent. Spyro raised his brows to comment "A tomb probably means treasure, so sure I'll help but…Why can't you go in?"

"With all these scorpions about? That's lunacy! I'll just stay right here until you're done." The mouse then wiggled back and forth while Spyro groaned and whispered back to Alex in disgust "Another creature in love…Alright, lets find some Eggs."

Alex turned and saw Shina still jabbering on and on and on while breathing heavily. Alex got behind and tapped her shoulder, and with a turn on the dime she looked surprised "O-Oh sorry, you should've hit my stop button sooner!"

"You HAVE one?" Alex dryly said before shaking his head a little "Just get a move on already..."

Shina giggled and then the duo went on their way with Spyro. There were some giant scorpions running around that could spit waves of acidic fire from their lithe tails, but by this point a charge from Spyro is enough to deal with anything not made of metal.

After crossing a couple of sinking pillars, the group ends up near some stony hands that were erected in the ground like platforms. Shina takes a moment to step away from the others and rub the wrist of one of those hands. She closed her eyes and hummed for a little bit until Alex went over to her "Shina, we really can't be playing 'Ruin Maniac'."

"O-Oh of course not! We're not in the Pokemon world!" Shina shook her hands beside her face while looking a bit flustered.

"This is the second time you've done this. What's up with you?" Alex raised his brows curiously.

"Just something involving my sister and a promise we made. Maybe I'll talk about it later, alright?" Shina spoke rather quickly before brushing her hair aside. Alex blinked twice and shrugged his shoulders "W-Well, alright…Whatever, I guess." They then caught back up to Spyro, who was on a bridge that could become hot every few seconds.

Alex kneels down and touches it, his fingers becoming a tiny bit red before he is able to shut it off. He shook his fingers around while chilling them as he moved on, and Spyro pondered "That didn't hurt did it?"

"It's no big deal." Alex calmly spoke, only grunting in pain once the dragon looked away. However, he couldn't stop Shina from noticing.

"Something up?" Shina tilted her head, though Alex ignored her a little and murmured "My resistances too…? Ugh, what a pain, but..." Alex clenched his fist once it was cooled while Shina looking at him with some concern.

The group moved on, cautiously crossing some mid-air bridges until they end up close to a lake of acid. Shina looks around and sees a ledge and a small wooden house of sorts a little farther ahead.

"I'll split up here and do some searching! Catch ya later!" Shina then leaped up to the ledge with a couple flips and waved down after a perfect landing. After a couple blinks, Alex turned to Spyro

"We need to get into the ruins. See anything?"

The dragon looked at something past the river "There's an entrance over there. Neat! Never been inside any ruins before!"

"Really? You just realized that?" Alex said smarmily, and the purple dragon looked back to say "Duh! What about you?"

"…Uhhh, I dabbled a bit?" He replied while giving a rather neutral gesture beside his shoulder.

"This'll be exciting!" Spyro puffed some smoke from his nostrils and grinned "Come on, what are we waiting for?"

As Alex followed, he began to notice that Spyro had been more talkative whenever Shina wasn't around.

"Say…Does Shina bug you?" He asked half-seriously

"Huh? Well…she's not as bad as Hunter can be sometimes. She seems to bug YOU more." Spyro said rather bluntly, but smirked afterwards.

"Well, yes but…I don't really have a choice in the matter." Alex scratched his head after a moment's hesitation "You were just being silent around her, I felt."

"Heh, it's cause anything gets her talking." Spyro said in a humored tone as they entered the ruins.

"I don't want to test the limits of that, believe me." The two then looked ahead and saw Moneybags standing in front of a large yellow stone door in their way. Moneybags' features drooped bear-y quickly, but Alex and Spyro looked back at each other and continued.

"At least you can trust her. More than I can say for that apprentice." Spyro's tone was one of disdain, and he shook his head a bit as Alex replied "Eh, she's the nicest witch I've met at any rate."

"That doesn't help, she's the only one I've met."

"Well if it helps, Hunter…Errr, never mind." Alex shook his head once Spyro glared his way, followed by him looking away and tapping a foot on the ground _"Shina should be handling this, not me."_

Spyro said in a laid-back manner "Well, whatever. If she tries anything" he thrust his head up with a spurt of flames coming from his mouth "…I'll toast her!"

Alex blinked and with a wide-eyed glance at the dragon said "Y-Yeah, good enough. Save some of those flames for the Sorceress, or better yet…" He then nudged to Moneybags, and the bear flinched a bit.

"Eh, not yet. But I guess while we're here…" Spyro smiled a bit and walked up to the stuttering bear "A-Ah, Spyro! I see you brought your bodygu-…Err I mean, FRIEND, yes, your good friend…what's-his-name. Look, Spyro, buddy, pal, why can't we go back to the good ol' days? When I would give you a reasonably good price to explore a further part of a world, you'd throw in some sarcasm, then you'd give me some gems and we'd both be happy with ourselves."

"Pretty sure you didn't have animals in cages back then." Spyro bluntly commented, with the bear chuckling before he replied "Now lets be fair, that WAS the Sorceress who did that, not me. I was just errr…Making a profit off her work. Oh dear that really doesn't sound much better…Errr, don't give me that glare, this is already tough enough."

"Look, what do you want?" Spyro inquired, the bear taking a gulp before stating "I have sealed this door with a magic password. If you pay me a fee, perhaps I would be willing to…let it slip."

Alex could see the bear sweating a little, drenching his fur, but the boy shook his head and lifted his hand up towards the door. Moneybags' eyes were focused on him as he made the door shake a little, but something made him stop. Shina's voice was nagging at his mind a little bit, reminding him of what would happen to the bear later. Right now, that thing wouldn't be as satisfying, so with a hesitating sigh Alex closed his eyes and pretended to struggle as the door stopped shaking.

"S-Sorry Spyro, the door is sealed with a strong type of magic." Alex was forcibly dramatic, but Spyro was oblivious and shook his head "That's alright, we got enough gems to spare. Name your price Moneybags…"

"O-Oh, really? Well, I'll let you in for about…800 gems!"

Spyro rolled his eyes then nudged to Sparx, who hand over the gems. Moneybags cracked a smile and said "H-Honestly didn't think this'd work. Ok, get ready…The password is 'Gullible'!" He was all too excited, reveling in that matter with a bright smile as the door retracted into the ceiling.

Alex sighed as the two of them moved on without another word, heading into the innards of the ruins. The walls were painted with ivory colored floral patterns that looked very clean all things considered, but what wasn't clean were the many scorpions that littered the place. Not far in, Alex started grumbled

"Really should've known better than to except Moneybags to learn a lesson." He then followed Spyro along further into the ruins "Hey, try imagining Moneybags as a dragonfly."

"…Like Sparx?" Alex tilted his head. Spyro nodded and the boy began to go deep in thought. He saw a bad crayon drawing of Moneybags' head taped onto Sparx's body, and it let out some buzzes in his accents.

"Yeah alright, that's pretty good." Alex giggled quietly. He folded his arms and traversed through some burning floors with Spyro. It took a few seconds for them to end up near the exit of the ruins, Spyro let out a disappointed sigh while Alex was more focused on a ladder next to the exit.

"Well…Up or outside?" He asked.

"Up sounds good, but Shina's been gone a while. Will she catch up?"

Alex closed his eyes and painted an image of Shina bouncing around with a female kangaroo that was the first partner Spyro had met in this realm, and then he grumbled while tapping his fingers against his arms.

"Whatever. She'll find us. At least she still goes for the eggs…" He mumbled before the two of them climbed the nearby ladder. Alex repelled the flames from an odd metallic tiki until Spyro could break it with a tackle at the top. Then, they went around the corner and saw a pristine white passage leading deeper into the ruins, leaping down it to find a portal close by.

Once through it, the air became cool and moist thanks to a pool of water close by. The duo leaped in and swam forward, with Alex still having difficulty understanding how this magic works until he passed the building him and Spyro were inside of.

Down here there were more ruins, all as clean as could be. Visibility was clear, but nothing except sand existed beyond the ring of marble pillars. Paddling before the ruins was Hunter, and he now wore a purple diving suit complete with flippers and swim goggles.

"Hey guys! I was just training my manta ray to wield these new super-high-tech underwater missile launchers!" He said upon being approached by Spyro.

"Isn't that really dangerous? …And shouldn't you be looking for Eggs?" He asked with curiosity piqued. Hunter grinned from cheek to cheel.

"Of course I am! There's some metal sharks here and I think one of them has an egg! Since you're here Spyro, want to take my manta for a ride to take them out? Ehh…ehhhh?" The cheetah not too subtly nudged his elbow out to his buddy.

"Might as well, I got experience." The dragon shrugged but sounded excited.

Hunter turned and whistled, a cutesy green manta ray with a body as wide as Alex is tall swimming over quickly. The steel red missile launchers it carried did not distract from it's beady eyes, which stared at the two as the creature let out a tiny, echoing squeak.

The manta ray nudged against Spyro's face, then swam to Alex and tried to do the same thing, but the boy suddenly pulled back out of the way with his heart skipping a beat. The manta ray tilted himself and then tried again, but Alex backed off a little more and his face was frozen in fraught. Spyro saw this unfold with a puzzled raise of his brows.

"What's up?"

"N-Nothing's wrong." Alex shook his head and continued somewhat forced "Y-Your manta ray is very friendly, Hunter."

The manta tried one last time to approach Alex, but when he backed off the creature let out a puzzled squeak and swam back to Spyro and Hunter.

"Hehe, yeah, he's a really cuddly little guy, aren't you buddy?" The cheetah swam over to the manta ray and patted him, which made them both happy.

Alex folded his arms together and felt his body tense up, and distracting himself didn't help as looking at the metallic sharks awakening something else. Each of them had their features grotesquely morphed until they were eel-like creatures with claws like raptors and heads complete with glowing yellow eyes. They slowly turned their bodies towards Alex, the light fleeting from the depths and their eyes piercing hazily through the darkness. Closing his eyes, he took in a few quick but hefty breaths before murmuring in a panic "You're stronger than this…you're stronger than this…"

"Stronger than what?"

"AAAAAAAH!" Alex let out a sharp cry and jolted his head up, disturbing the Rhynocs enough for Spyro to blast them with missiles as they were distracted.

Alex catches his breath then swerves his head back with panic deep in his eyes, only to find that it was just Shina behind him, who was blinking a few times while paddling harmlessly, the only thing off being the hand raised that made Alex wonder if he was tapped on the back.

"Y-You don't have to freak out, it's just me!" She was quite flabbergasted. Alex paused with his mouth agape, sharply turning back and tapping his folded arms at an irregular pace. Shina laid a finger against her mouth and shook her head a little before something caught her eye "Oh hey, a manta ray! I've never seen one before!"

"…H-He'd probably let you pet him if you got close." Alex said while trying to snap back to reality.

"Oh that's just silly! That'd be dangerous!" She replied with her usual chuckle.

"…You can't be serious." Alex bluntly looked back, with her folding arms back and hanging her head uncertainly "Uhhh, maybe? Was the book I read about them wrong?" before tapping a finger to her lips and going deep in thought. Alex raised a finger to object.

"You know what…?" His finger went limp and with a dumbfounded expression he looked back ahead "Y-You're asking the wrong guy."

Alex kept away from any further conversation, Shina likewise did the same because manta rays were that ingrained into her mind right now. Spyro soon wrapped things up and got a Dragon Egg, saying goodbye to Hunter before the group went back to the ruins and headed to the exit seen before.

Right as they approached the giant stone helmet, the back of it shattered and a strange creature ran past the dust that was kicked up. It was a female light furred mouse that was as tall as Hunter and wore a teal tank top with beige shorts for her legs. Like Shina, she was particularly, and disturbingly, "gifted" up top. Alex is the only one who really bat an eye at this oddity of a creature. Spyro was the first to speak up.

"Hey, are you Tara?"

"I am. Let me guess…Gus sent you to find me?" The mouse spoke in a rather thick and feminine cockney accent. Spyro gave her a quick nod, and she sighed.

"Of course he did. I don't know why I fell in love with him, he just does not have that sense of adventure I do. Speaking of such, my trials in the Tomb of the Stone Golem have unfortunately come up dry. I only found this egg…Here, take it, I suppose you can use it."

She handed a Dragon Egg off to Spyro and then suddenly made a sprint for the portal that showed up nearby. While seeing her off Shina leaned to the left and smiled.

"There she goes…off to raid some more tombs. I guess you could say she's…" Alex squinted his eyes and groaned, but then the girl said quite simply "…really enthusiastic about her hobbies!" and he was left dumbounded.

"…Wow…"

"What? What is it?" She gave a curious murmur and glanced back, but Alex went into a state of silence and shook his head before joining Spyro towards the portal. Shina would repeat her inquiry until they got back to Midnight Mountain…

 _Next Time: Riddles and Tombs_


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: Harrowing in the Haunted Tombs**

Upon entering the portal to the Haunted Tombs there was nothing but black and blue skies. No landmarks, no clouds, it was all an empty void as far out as the eye could see. Even with the stone enclosure they were approaching, the place had a hostile air to it, and Alex let out a slight gulp. There was one hole in the enclosure that they were just able to slip through, and they landed inside of the tomb safely.

Torches along the walls kept the sights alit, revealing numerous hieroglyphs on the stone pillars, a trembling gold sarcophagus, and a door marked with an orange ankh. Alex closed his eyes once he lazily sight-seed and sighed.

"A Chinese factory, Greek ruins, and an Egyptian tomb? Pretty diverse for a fantasy world…" Spyro looked back with a curious glance.

"What are you talking about?" Alex widened his eyes and murmured hesitantly as his glance erratically moved about, but Shina's clap put an end to that.

"Oh! It's just some terms from our world!" Her timely jump into the conversation got the dragon nodding his head acceptingly, and he focused back on what's ahead. Shina looked to Alex with a chuckle, but he just lowered his head and let out a humph with cheeks looking a little pink.

The three looked at a mysterious purple dog, who wore a white pharaoh's cap and skirt along with some golden jewelry. His eyes were closed, and not even his chest moved. Spyro tilted his head and nudged the chest of the dog with a horn.

"Uhhh…are you ali-"

"WELCOME!" The dog came to life in good cheer, and Spyro leaped back in a heartbeat.

"H-Huh…! So you're not dead!"

"Of course not! I'm quite young in dog years I'll have you know." His voice was very stoic yet dignified, and it had a slight Egyptian accent. While Shina snuck behind the dog, Alex forced his driest smirk ever while saying hesitantly "…You don't look a day over 40?" The dog's face squinted into a subdued glare towards him after.

"For YOUR sake, I'll pretend I didn't hear that." Beyond some fur standing up on his neck, he was unaware of Shina kneeling behind him as he went on to mention "Now then, if you're willing to brave the dangers of our ancient tomb and solve our riddle, we can offer you our greatest treasure. The riddle is-oh…ohohohohoho!" While he suddenly broke into a giggle fit, Spyro let out a confused murmur while Alex saw that Shina was scratching all over the dog's back.

"Shina!" The girl perked her head up and looked at Alex, saying with her usual innocence "What? I thought he was an animatronic!" Alex gave her a glare, and she after waving her hands she stood up. The dog caught his breath then twisted his head back as much as his spine would allow to follow Shina with his own piercing glare.

"As I was saying…My riddle is…'I am a vessel without hinges, lock or lid, yet within my walls, a golden treasure is hid. What am I?"

"A Dragon Egg." Alex's immediate response made the dog hunch forward with his face contorting in teeth gritting irritation, only for him to pull back and take a deep breath before saying "Ah, but an answer is nothing without solving the trials of this-" Alex snapped his fingers and a staircase made of stone appeared behind the dog, and it led to another dog on a ledge.

"Alright, lets go guys." Alex puts his hands in his pockets and advanced towards the staircase, with Shina shaking her head with fingers on her forehead while Spyro cracked a smile.

"Nothing like a good shortcut!"

The dog, who had been hunched over for the last few seconds, broke his silence with a sharp turnaround and a clap of his hands, a frustrated doggy growl coming out as a stone slab dropped from the ceiling and blocked the ledge. As Alex looked back, Shina held a hand to her lips and said playfully "Uh Oh!"

While Spyro was handling the angered expression, Alex laid a hand on the wall and tried to make it budge to no avail, which led to him gritting his teeth and swinging a fist out beside his body as he once more faced the dog.

"Alright mutt, what sorcery is this?!" The dog grinned behind his almost glued together paws, blowing away all pretenses of stoic to deliver his menacing stare.

"Perhaps I did not make myself clear…Do the trials, or face the consequences." Spyro puffed some flames out and smirked in response.

"I'm feeling pretty hungry right now. Can't say I ever had a hot dog before!" Spoken with the utmost bluntness, not even that was enough to make the dog flinch.

"You're brave, young dragon, but lets see that bravery survive when I've shown you the full force of my ancient Egyptian magic!" Shina finally put on a shocked expression and swerved her head back.

"Alex, I don't think we have time to go to the Shadow Realm. Can we NOT escalate this forward?" Her plea was an earnest one, a little joking sprinkled in sure, but it was enough to ease some of the anger on Alex's face. He unfurled his fist and grumbled "The universe is just conspiring to drag this out, isn't it?" while looking at the dog.

"Fine, we'll do your silly trials." He begrudgingly pushed the stairs back into the ground and made his way towards the ankh door, and the dog put on a smile while clapping his hands to open the way for the group.

"Splendid, splendid! Have fun now, and don't go running into trouble!" The dog gave a wave that was mocking, but Alex's responded by casually swinging his right hand up and displacing the floor beneath their feet so they were knocked onto their back. The door slammed shut right after, and Alex grumbled while following his allies down the stairs. Shina looked back, her lips curled into a curious pucker.

"Probably could've handled that better Alex…" Alex lifted his head up and with some irritation in his glare he replied "You can't tell me you're not getting tired of this."

"W-Well…" Shina scratched her head with a nervous grin, following up after a giggle "I don't really care much for this place. I mean what's there to look at? Rocks, darkness, more rocks, some mummies, a giant rock snake…" Alex heard her out until some giant brown bandaged mummies got his attention, where he then lifted his burning hand up and launched an exploding fireball to take it out. He then looked at the scenery and saw more of same things he saw in the first room, just arranged at different elevations and a river flowing through the middle of it all.

"I'm surprised you have it in you to dislike something."

Shina looked Alex in the eyes, stammering "W-Well I mean, no one can like EVERYTHING there is out there. I dislike brussel sprouts, for example! And you dislike…" before giving an encouraging gesture.

"Wasting time here." Was the answer given quite bluntly, but as Alex smiled with some pride Shina just shook her head and let out a prolonged sigh.

"Now you know that's not fair, come on." She said with a frivolous grin. Alex pocketed his hands and with a slight hunch forward mumbled "D-Don't laugh, but…I'm not a big fan of mountain goats" then looked aside with a blush in his cheeks. Shina blinked a little and hunched her face before a hand to keep her smile concealed.

"Alright, you can tell me more about that later." She then turned ahead and kept a steady pace forward, keeping up the purple dragon as he passed through a room where boulders fell from the dark ceiling and crumbled out of existence upon impact. Alex blinked a little and thought _"Geez, didn't even realize we got this far. It's almost as if talking with Shina makes this more tolerable."_ He widened his eyes and with a blush looked aside.

" _N-Not that I'd ever actually admit that…"_ With a shake of his head he kept up with his comrades as they moved on through the dullard sights of this rocky tomb, though Spyro was able to find a Dragon Egg upon one of the ledges along the way. On the way down though he let out a yawn and turned to Sparx.

"Hey buddy, how you holding up?" His lips smacked and his voice was partially tired, but the dragonfly spun around full of energy and cheerful buzzes.

"I'm a bit envious. Maybe we should get some of that magic and switch bodies for a day." The dragonfly shook his head and let out a couple distressed buzzes, Shina looking at him and asking "Oh I wish I could understand what you were saying Sparx." She then rested a hand upon her chest while holding another out, protruding a familiar air around her that led Alex to groan before she began.

"Alas, to be a dragonfly. So whimsical, so sly. To fly through the air so freely…Humble dragonfly, won't thou speak to me?" Her elegy ended with her holding a hand out with a welcoming smile, and with a couple happy buzzes Sparx flew besides Shina's ear and spoke for a little. His wings fluttered her hair aside for his safety, and she nodded while murmuring a few things in an intrigued tone. While those two went at it, Alex looked to Spyro with something on his mind.

"Hey, does Sparx sound clear when he speaks to you?"

"Nah, we've just learned to communicate over the years." Spyro's answer was direct yet had a hint of nostalgia. He looked to his friend as he flew away from Shina and back to his side, with the girl giggling as she had no subtly in glancing at Alex. Even he could see something was up.

"Heeeey, what exactly did he say?"

"Oh nothing, nothing." Shina twirled innocently around and then went deeper into the tomb with Spyro while Alex's mind was plagued with ideas of what the dragonfly might have said, none of them flattering. Along the way, there was a portal to the right in the center of a mausoleum entrance. Alex and Spyro paused between the steps to that and some going further into the tomb.

"Might be an Egg there." The two spoke together, sharing a glance while Shina earnestly chuckle and said "Guess we can split up here. See ya guys at the end!" She swiftly sprinted up the other stairs, the two she left sharing a puzzled glance before nevertheless walking into the portal.

All by her lonesome, Shina finally reached the chamber that she saw from the beginning of the tomb, a lone dog standing there waiting with a smile on his face.

"Ah welcome! You managed to survive the trials of the tomb! I'm quite sorry our partner's behavior. He is a real son of his mother that one…" After an embarrassed sigh the dog perked up and continued "I heard that boy answer the riddle already, but for the sake of tradition…'I am a vessel without hinges, lock or lid, yet within my walls, a golden treasure is hid. What am I?'"

"A Dragon Egg!" Shina perkily replied, the dog clapping for a few seconds before he swung a paw against his forehead and moved to take his hat off, a Dragon Egg hid underneath.

"Thank goodness! Now I can finally retire to the Spooky Swamps! It feels like I've been in this place forever! I will never forget this…" The pleased pooch gestured for an answer, Shina replying "Shina Aurora good sir!" a thumb pointed at herself.

"Very well! Perhaps I shall meet you again someday, Shina Aurora." The dog then ran through a nearby portal while the egg hatched in front of her. All alone, she held her arms back and stretched her body forward, letting out a sigh as her expression looked a little melancholy.

"Geez, what are you doing Shina…? You're letting this world get the better of you." She looked back at a nearby Agent 9 portal, cracking a wide genuine smile as her eyes twinkled.

"I mean it's sooooo much fun to be here, but…" Closing her eyes with restraint caused her to see Kairi standing in front of her with such smile on her that as a big sister, was the thing that inspired her the most. Opening her eyes, Shina reached for her pocket and murmured "…I can't forget my priorities" while pulling out the note her mother gave her. Looking at the bottom, she focused on a line that she hadn't told Alex about.

" _Your first step should be to explore the land of dragons…A clue will be there if you can exercise patience. Beyond that, the aura will be your guide."_

After a close examination of the note, Shina held it against her chest and whispered "For the sake of our happiness as a family, I'll make this right…Mom, sis…" The note was put away, and Shina ran into the Agent 9 portal while thinking _"Two worlds left, then we can confront the Sorceress."_

On the other side, Shina ended up in a tunneled cavern with some electrical walls splitting it all up. More importantly though, Agent 9 was there, cocking his laser gun at a dog with trembling knees.

"Aaaaaaalright you mangy mutt! I'm giving you 'til the count of three before I set my blaster from stun…to kill." The dog had the tip of the blaster on his forehead and could only focus on it.

"I-I'm telling you! You cannot fix your tail unless you complete the trials!"

"3...2..." As the trigger was tugged, Shina got beside Agent 9 and announced her presence with a fantastical "Hello!" The monkey stopped and looked to her with a grin.

"Oh hello again strange gunner gal! Wish I could talk but this MUTT has cursed my tail to turn into a snake…and now it demands REVENGE!" The dog gulped a mouthful of saliva.

"Y-You can't even do the trials without handling my riddle you unevolved lunatic! 'I follow you wherever you go, but the more of me you take, the more you leave behind'! It's simple!"

"Those are footsteps, right?" Shina gestured out, the dog looking to her with face frozen stiff in a mixture of surprise and fright.

"C-Correct!" He meekly spoke, and Shina smiled to him and asked "If I helped Agent 9 out, would that be ok? I mean, he just has to get through the trials to stop the curse right?"

"Well, the trials aren't picky…I suppose we can allow that. Not that this primate will learn anything from it." The dog's forehead is prodded by the tip of the blaster while Agent 9 exclaimed "Yap yap yap! All that matters is getting my tail back to normal, so open up!" With a pitiful whimper followed by a clap, the dog opened the electric gates.

"Thaaaaaat's more LIKE IT! Alright gun gal, lets blast through these trials! Whoop, whoop!" The monkey pumped his fist while walking down into a small arena filled with sarcophaguses, Shina activating her Gunslinger Drive as she followed. After five rooms of mummies that stood NO chance, the two end up finding a Dragon Egg near a portal and nothing else.

"WHAT?! This was a rip-off, a sham! There's no curse cure here! Just another stinkin' egg!" The monkey swung his fist into the sky and continued furiously and dramatically "Curse you pharaoh dogs! Curse YOUUUUU!" After watching the egg hatch, Shina looked back at the monkey and couldn't help but giggle.

"You could always go find Bianca. Maybe she'd know a spell to stop the curse." The monkey raised his eyebrows and said with some puzzlement "That loony bunny working for the Sorceress? What, ya saying she's on our side now?"

"Yeah! She shouldn't be hard to find!" Those optimistic words got the monkey nodding his head and slapping his knee in joy, and with a bulging of his eyes he responded "I'll get RIGHT on that! Thanks for your help gun gal, catch ya later!" He then broke into a sprint and left the room, Shina joining him not long after. Alex and Spyro had already returned by that time, and having gotten everything else in the realm they left through the portal to Midnight Mountain…

 _Next Time: The New Age of Dinos_


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: DINO-Mite at the Dino Mines**

After taking some time to clean up the Speedway of Midnight Mountain, the group headed to the last portal that leads to the Dino Mines. As they landed on the floating island, they found themselves in a quaint but abandoned town. The houses in the area looked like they were pulled from a Cowboy flick, and there were plenty of cacti to be found. Fittingly, the sky was a sunset pink and the ground was dusty. Though as Alex looked out, one thing got his mind in a fluster.

"What kind of abomination of evolution is this?" He referred to some green and blue creatures that looked like goofy t-rexes, but they were wearing cowboy vests and hats. Some had dynamite in their jaws, others carried pistols at their hips. Shina pulls a cactus needle carelessly and clenches it between her teeth, looking to the dinos while pretending to tilt a 'hat'.

"Well daggum, we got ourselves a rip-roarin' dino problem in 'dis here town! Better rev' up those flames Spyro, we got some roundin' up to do!" Shina's accent was thick yet shockingly clear, with Alex looking to the sky with a groan of SHEER exasperation before he whispered "If anyone's listening, I'm ready to leave this world behind now." Then his head jerked down against his will when Shina slapped him one on the back.

"Come on Alex! Lets show them not to mess with our town!"

"We don't even live here!" Alex tried to bluntly retort but the girl had already trotted off to battle alongside Spyro, and after rolling his eyes the boy grumbled whatever counted for profanities in this world and leaped off the ledge between the nearby houses, gliding over to another ledge that carried a Dragon Egg.

"Last world, last world, last world…" He murmured with face tensed up until he got back around. He then followed the fallen dinosaurs until he got to the busted up stone building, his allies standing before some jail bars. Behind them was a tiny rabbit dressed like a sheriff, complete with dotted eyes peering at the whole group. He clanged a can against the bars with a limping arm, and his fur was roughed up.

"It's been hard times in these parts Spyro…The dinos have gotten a hold of our ammunition and started a complete takeover of the town! I tried to stop them, but those pea brains tricked me into this cell." When he was done with his melancholy tale he plopped his rear down, only to be introduced to Alex's dry humor.

"If they're pea brains that doesn't reflect well on you now does it?" The sheriff raised a brow yet could only shake his hung head in agreement.

"Wish I could argue, but you're right. If you could take care of these problems, I'd be in your debt." The sheriff's plight was answered by Spyro bluntly inquiring "By that you mean a Dragon Egg?"

"Guess I should've reckoned you'd know the deal by now, but yes. That's what-" The sheriff was interrupted when the bars started to release a screeching creak, as Alex had started to bend them apart with his bare hands. When there was a big enough hole, he stepped back and with Shina slapping her forehead beside him said "There, freedom. We'll take that Egg now." He gestured towards his chest, but only got a look of confusion from the puzzled sheriff.

"Uhh…thanks and all, but I did say the dinos need to be taken care of. Come back when you've cleared them all out and then you'll get the Egg!" Alex's mouth was agape as the sheriff walked off to relax against the back wall, and as his mind popped like a firecracker the boy grit his teeth and started snarling like a dog with rabies. Shina raised her eyes in concern and held a hand to her lips.

"Uh-oh…" He tone gentle with worry, she looked to Spyro and requested "Could you go on ahead? I'll handle this, promise!' The dragon just let out a confused hum and wandered off after a nod. Shina stood in front of Alex and grabbed him by the shoulders, easing him with a smile. As the boy looked away with red cheeks Shina spoke to him in a sing-song manner.

"Aleeeeex…Why are you getting frustrated this time?" Alex bit his lower lip then closed his eyes before responding "These NPCs aren't doing the things they should be. First that dog threatened us, then-" His lips were sealed by a well-intending finger, his heart beating a bit as Shina pulled herself back and took that same finger to her own mouth.

"Remember what I said? You can't expect reality to be like the games. There's no such thing as an NPC in real life." After putting on a disbelieving expression, Alex folded his arms and looked quite disgruntled.

"Hmph! The nerdy nerd is giving me this lecture?" Alex swung his head to the right with an air of fierce arrogance, but Shina met him with contrasting behavior as she slowly shook her head.

"No, your friend is giving you advice." Alex swiftly turned his head, giving her a glare that burned hotter than any of his flames. He firmly gripped his arms and with a tense scowl told her off.

"Stop doing that! We're only working towards a common goal, we are NOT friends!" Shina reeled back, for a moment looking a bit surprised as her expression portrayed slight disappointment. She then looked down and kicked a foot against the ground while maintaining a smile.

"Well…Maybe you don't think that, but I do. I get you're angry, but…You can't push me away. We're in this together Alex, you can rely on me, just like I know I can rely on you." When she was done, her gaze lifted to meet Alex's solemn eyes, and she awaited a response with a gentle swaying of her body. The boy goes silent for a few more seconds before letting out a drawn out growl.

"Gaaaaaah! I'd rather waste time dealing with menial tasks than continue this conversation! Lets go!" Alex swerved and sprinted off, Shina letting out an unfitting "Yay!" as she followed him out of the jail to catch up to Spyro. The dragon had gotten across a bridge and into a shaded building, leaving a trail of dino corpses in his wake. Before they were within his hearing range Shina had something to say.

"Extinction thy name not meteor, but Spyro." It was spoken like a soliloquy, but Alex just groaned and walked up to the dragon to ask him something.

"Find anymore Eggs?" The dragon looked back and shook his head, followed by him mentioning "Dinosaurs with guns…This would only be the SECOND weirdest thing I've seen in my life."

"What's the weirdest?" Shina inquired with interest.

"…Eh, I'll tell you later." Spyro shrugged it off after a bit of thought and then after Shina let out a disappointed sigh she followed the dragon out of the building, where they took care of some dinos until they ended up near an underwater tunnel. With what would be their last dive into this world's magical water, the group dealt with a bunch of pistol-whipping seahorses on their way through to the other side, finding another Dragon Egg along the way.

Emerging from the water, Spyro immediately tackled a triceratops mounting a turret and sent him flying off the cliff, his demise pronounced by a goofy cry until he crashed down onto something hard and sent up a puff of dirt. Spyro flinched as he observed that, while Shina offered her prayers and Alex looked a bit dumbfounded.

"…Need I remind you both that was one of our enemies?" His smarmy remark was followed by Shina definitely forcing a sniffle and doing a tear wipe so fake even Hunter would've noticed.

"Oh poor Tricky the Triceratops. He wished to fight for the rights of his people, but a lack of opposable thumbs meant he could only take up artillery against his oppressors. He had a wife and four kids at home waiting for him, and his life was cut short only because he had money we need for our quest." Halfway through Alex glared at her. At the end his eyes were seconds from bulging out of his sockets. He then raised his voice with clear irritation.

"One, Tricky's not THAT triceratops! Two, why are you making up a backstory for that enemy?! Three…WHY IS SPYRO GOING ALONG WITH THIS?!" The dragon lifted his head up with a puzzled murmur, not even realizing what he was doing until Alex's talent at yelling came into play.

"Oh…uhh…" Spyro swung the gem nearby into Sparx while quickly saying for once "N-Never mind that, there's more dinosaurs nearby!" He then sprinted off, almost embarrassingly in fact, towards the bridge nearby. Shina was keeling over in laughter until Alex just walked off to actually get business done, swinging a frosted palm to his now throbbing forehead.

" _I-I should really go lay down after this…"_ He let out the occasional moans while Spyro and Shina cleaned out this cliffside area of the remaining dinos, culminating in them busting down a stone wall with a charge and ending up back in the jail area. Unfortunately, they had buried the sheriff under rubble. Shina gasped and then scrambled to pull the sheriff out, but thankfully he was pretty conscious if somewhat shaken.

Once the weight was off him he stood up and coughed some dust out, telling his 'saviors' in a humored tone "W-Well…There's no way this day can get any worse now" as he brushed his clothes clean. Shina chuckled and told him "S-Sorry…But hey! You're right, everything can only get better from here! We stopped all the Cowdinos!"

"We are NOT calling them that!" Alex yelled out from behind, but Shina just quietly sighed and brushed off his remark as the sheriff had something to say to her.

"Well I wouldn't say you cleaned out every part of town. There's still the main part within the mountains, you can get there via a portal. I think some monkey guy came by wanting to deal with that, but since I haven't seen him for a while…" Shina stopped him midway by gesturing out and saying "Don't worry about it, I'll check on him!"

"Alrighty then. Now I owe you all an Egg…I'm just going to go take a vacation, get my mind in check." The sheriff then threw an egg down to the group and ran for a portal, his posture projecting an aura of relief that Shina was glad to sense. After the egg hatched, she turned around and clapped her hands.

"We're almost done! Soon we'll be knocking down the Sorceress' front door!" Her voice was more enthusiastic than usual, if that was even possible, and her hands were clasped before her chest. Spyro cracked a grin that showed all of his fangs.

"Finally! I've been saving my flames for a witch burning BBQ!" The dragon's remark was met by an approving chuckle from Alex, who held his right hand up and said "I can agree with that" while setting it on fire. He then looked to Shina and had something else to bring up.

"Of course, we'll also be one step closer to finding some information on the Cosmos Drive. Right, Shina?" Alex raised his brows a little, and Shina gave him the most honest grin her muscles would allow.

"Yah! We're going to find something, I can just FEEL it! But fiiiiirst…" With a sprint, Shina passed between her allies and rounded the corner, leaping across the gap to end up at an Agent 9 portal. Her priorities set, she entered it with gusto while Alex was left with Spyro once more. The two looked at each other, Alex humming a little until the dragon spoke up.

"I think I saw a barrel of water back there. Lets check it out!" Alex, with nothing else he could think of, gave a weak nod and silently followed the dragon on his investigation. Shina, meanwhile, ended up in another part of town, with even more abandoned buildings scattered about. Here though the dust was kicked up by a light gale, a couple tumbleweeds moved about, and Agent 9 was leaning against a travel wagon with a cowboy hat tilted over his face.

"I've been waitin' for ya pardner! You kept me waiting quite a bit! You better not have already dealt with the Sorceress since I last saw ya…!" Agent 9 lifted his head up and suddenly looked a bit worried as he calmly asked "No seriously, did you?" Shina giggled and approached the monkey, activating her Gunslinger Drive before twirling her pistols around her pointer fingers.

"We'll be tackling her next! I heard ya got a dino problem to deal with first." The pistols were firmly grasped, with the monkey throwing his hat into the wind and saying with a gleeful expression "You betcha! These scaly buckaroos have taken over this little town, so lets take it back!" Shina made a hum as she nodded, and the two strolled out towards the empty town. A few dinos began to emerge from behind houses and the wagon, whipping their guns out into their tiny arms and taking aim at their foes.

Shina and Agent 9 stood their ground, wiggling their eyebrows while Shina started to hum that Western Standoff tune, a couple tumbleweeds conveniently rolling between the two parties as the dinos looked at each other in confusion. Agent 9 joined along with the humming as well, to a less effective degree. Once they had built themselves up with that tune, they went to work on the dinos.

Laser fire filled the skies of the area as the dinos were completely and utterly massacred by the gunner duo. Not since the days of the Cretaceous had there been such an extinction level event, and it only took the two ten minutes to take down every dino that hadn't just ran for their lives. Having cleared out the town of threats, the duo didn't find just one, but TWO Dragon Eggs.

"Wow…The author is really getting lazy now." Agent 9 said nonchalantly, with Shina looked back after the eggs hatched to say with head tilted "What do you mean by that?"

"Huh? Mean by what?" Agent 9 said with an even greater degree of nonchalance than before. Shina gave him an eyebrow raising glare as she then turned back to normal, and the monkey swung his hand down to reply "You think I'm crazy? I'm not crazy, you're crazy! …Or maybe I am crazy…Hmm…The questions of life…" The monkey's sudden shift from madness to pondering got Shina giggling.

"Nah, you aren't crazy. But try to keep it together, our next stop is the Sorceress' Lair." Shina gave a heads-up to the monkey, and that got him to snap out of his thoughts to leap excitedly and do his usual knee slap.

"Yee-haa! I'm going to go grab all my weapons and meet you there then! That Sorceress won't see it coming!" Agent 9 sprinted off, though didn't seem to realize he was moving away from the portal. Shina had faith in the monkey to make it even after letting out a humored sigh, and she went back to her two allies so they could return to Midnight Mountain. The final battle awaited them…

 _Next Time: No More Dragons_


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16: Showdown with the Sorceress**

Making their way back to the big door in Midnight Mountain, they find Bianca and Hunter standing there waiting. Spyro cautiously approached the rabbit, while Alex and Shina patiently waited for the door to be opened.

"Oh, we're so close to accessing the Sorceress' archives! I wonder what our first hint is going to be?" Shina's eyes lit up as her imagination went rampant, Alex unable to even fathom what she could possibly be thinking of.

"Hopefully something straightforward. I swear, if we're given some vague riddle…" He scowled and grumbled, but Shina snapped out of her thoughts to deliver a rebuttal "But if it was an easy riddle, then what would've been the point of hiding the Cosmos Drive? Might as well just have it waiting on a silver platter on the first world someone would bother to look."

"W-Well, I wouldn't say they'd make it that easy. I'm still not fully convinced we'll even find anything here." Alex gestured with an aloof look on his face, yet Shina was quick to merrily counter his attitude "That's just pessimism talking. I feel pretty good about finding something!"

"And THAT'S just your optimism talking. I swear, if we somehow find some information on the Cosmos Drive, I'll…" Alex buried deep into his mind as he stared into the hole in the ceiling, dredging up an idea that got him grimacing a little "I-I'll create the hottest pepper you can think of and eat it."

"Ohohoh!" Shina laid some spread fingers before her mouth in intrigue and then said "Alright, I'll take you up on that bet! At least now I know you don't like spicy foods!" Alex widened his eyes and grumbled something about openly revealing that, but by the time the two's conversation was over with they looked to the door and saw it slowly creak open. The faint traces of Bianca's magic disappeared, and she looked to the three while panting a little.

"Just made it…But now you'll be able to confront the Sorceress. The fate of the Forgotten Realms and all the Dragons rests on your shoulders." Spyro cracked his usual smile and responded "Heh, no big deal!" followed by Hunter stepping out with his own remark.

"Don't worry about us in the meantime. We're going to go doublecheck for any missing Eggs and gems."

Spyro raised his brows a bit while looking at both Hunter and Bianca, but after a roll of his eyes he nodded his head and didn't say another word before making his way over to the steps in front of the door. As his two human allies followed him, Shina let out a gasp that froze everyone in place.

"Wait…Where's Agent 9?" She looked around and saw not a trace of the monkey, and Alex asked her "Weren't you the last one to see him?"

"Well yeah, but I thought he'd be here with all of his weapons." Spyro looked back and said "He isn't going to miss out on this fight. Come on, lets go burn the witch!" Not worrying about the monkey at this crucial junction, Shina faced the black passage beyond the door and joined her allies in walking through it. It didn't take long for them to find themselves dropped off in the middle of an arena surrounded by a lava moat. The sky was a burning red sunset, and large mountains were around the walls of the arena to keep Spyro trapped in.

Before them at long last was their enemy the Sorceress. A disgusting reptilian blue creature with thick skin, a wide head, cold iris-less eyes, and an air of arrogance surrounding her scaly form that Alex recognized to a frustrating degree. In her hand was a thin wand as tall as herself, a Dragon Egg trapped between three prongs and a veil of energy at the top. Her anticipation for this fight must have matched her enemies, for she immediately started a laugh rooted deeply in callous insanity.

"So you're the little worm getting in my way. You're much…smaller than I expected." The Sorceress' haggy voice was met with Spyro glaring at her and saying with his usual smart-mouth "And you're uglier than I expected."

"Grrr…" After a bit of guttural growling the Sorceress swung her wand in front of her and continued "Speak all you want you little pest, but when I'm through with you I shall skin the scales off your body and make you into a coat!"

"Purple wouldn't look very flattering on you. Then again, nothing would." Spyro replied without a care in his tone, and as the dragon casually scratched the side of his head the Sorceress' eyes suddenly glowed red and a purple aura spiked around her body. Shina's brows perked up and she quickly drew her rapier behind herself.

"Well, not surprising…She's our last obstacle."

While Shina looked rather unsurprised, Alex was more focused on glaring around the area. He combed every square inch with his ability to sense powers, but he couldn't find anything remotely close to someone else's presence. Grimacing a little, the boy then focused on the Sorceress and thought _"Just who is getting in our way?"_

"You pesky dragon! You and your kind think you can just share the magic in MY world like you're my equal?! You're all a bunch of brainless lizards! The only purpose you serve it to give me the immortality I deserve!" The Sorceress' arrogance and temper got to Alex, who gave her a firm scowl and let his barbed thoughts reach the tip of his tongue.

"Shut up! Monsters like you need to be put six feet under the grave." He then summoned his sword with enraged flames surrounding it, the glow of them casting a vicious shadow across his face for a moment. The Sorceress, however, had something else to say as she swung her arms out.

"Impudent children! You will know pain unlike any other…!" She then swung her wand above her head with a few brisk motions, the egg and the energy surrounding it turning orange as she casts a rain of small energy orbs at her foes. Each orb, larger than Alex or Shina's heads, burst into a small pillar upon hitting the ground, but it was a simple matter for Spyro to weave around them and go for a straight charge at the Sorceress.

However, she planted her staff against the ground and with the egg turning blue she created an electric shield around herself that made Spyro recoil back with his body zapped to the point of his skeleton showing, and Sparx ended up turning blue when he recovered. With a thrust of her staff the Sorceress swiftly sent out a beam of plasma, forcing the dragon to roll out of the way while looking quite shocked.

In the meantime, Alex is able to zip across the arena and get close to his foe, but when the blade was just an inch from cutting the Sorceress smirked and suddenly teleported behind the boy. The swing finished through and Alex turned around, being met with an explosion from the tip of the Sorceress' wand that launched him right back into the lava moat. But with a swing of his arms the lava was parted below Alex's feet and allowed him to leap back into the arena.

" _This isn't what she should be doing…"_ He gripped his blade in both hands and swung it beside his face with flames gone, switching to electricity around them before swinging at the ground to send a net across the ground that grabs the Sorceress and holds her in paralysis as the electricity tangled around her body.

"Hit her now Spyro!" Alex proclaimed as he kept the electricity from extending any further out. The dragon leaped off the ground and rammed the Sorceress in the back, his horns secretly empowered by Shina's aura. The aura shattered upon impact and Spyro's body recoiled onto the ground, but the Sorceress barely seemed fazed.

"Y-You call this magic?!" The Sorceress's wand glowed as her frustration grew, and magic shattered the electricity apart. Alex's eyes focused on his foe, his face expressing shock and slight anger while the Sorceress spun her wand around ready to launch more balls.

But back-up arrived with a "Bang!" as a rocket smashed into the Sorceress' back and knocked her onto the ground with the force of the explosion, forcing a feral roar from her mouth. The group looked to the edge of the arena, where Agent 9 stood proudly atop a small orange tank that levitated off the ground.

"Wooo-hooo hoo! Hope you liked my gift Sorceress, cause it was carefully packaged with 12 pounds of live T-N-T!" Agent 9 pounded his chest and stamped down on a button at the back of the tank's barrel to fire another rocket. The Sorceress smashed her wand down to stop the rocket with a barrier, then stood to her feet while glaring back at the surprised monkey.

"Well, good thing I brought LOTS of sweet rides!" Once he was certain of Spyro's focus Agent 9 pointed to the sky, where some balloons were slowly bringing in some more tanks, stationary turrets, and what appeared to be a cybernetic hovercraft.

"Glad you could make it! Now lets torch this witch!" Spyro turned to the Sorceress and let a fierce flare through his nostrils. The witch was surrounded by her foes yet felt no fear as she got to her feet and let out an arrogant roar "Your resistance means nothing! You shall ALL perish!" Her words were met with a wave of fire to the face, and Alex spun his sword around as she looked his way.

"You're outnumbered! You won't be leaving this place alive, Sorceress!" While Alex fiercely declared victory, Shina looked at him and chuckled nervously.

"U-Uhhh Alex…I know this is the final battle but you don't have to be so-" He responded with a slight glance over her way, but even that little sight of his eyes showed an intensity Shina had not seen from him before. She could only wonder what led her ally to feel such rage towards this witch, as her foe launched a series of energy balls across the battlefield.

"Uh-oh! Looks like the weather's partly cloud with a chance of danger! Aaaaand I eat danger for breakfast…!" Agent 9 said while cocking his gun and rapidly shooting up at the balls before they fell, walking off the tank and causing it to disappear. When he got a chance, the monkey shot down a hovercraft for Spyro to ride on. The dragon's claws were held down by some gravitational force, giving him the ability to fly around while launching pulse bombs at the Sorceress.

Alex and Spyro attack on two fronts with explosive projectiles, but the Sorceress used her wand to protect herself with a barrier. She then teleported in front of Spyro and used an explosion of magic to blow up the hovercraft and send him hurtling down. His body tumbled a few times while his scales were singed, and Sparx was turned green. Once the Sorceress was on the ground, Shina leaped in front of her and glided her rapier beside herself to put forth a barrier to stop a barrage of fireballs.

"Don't worry about it Spyro! Ya just need another one!" Once the Sorceress' barrage was done Shina did a backwards somersault, pausing to stand on her hands and kick her barrier up towards another balloon. When the hovercraft dropped Shina held it gracefully on her heel and then lowered it for Spyro, using an aura in front of her to deflect the Sorceress' projectiles until she gets the smart idea to teleport between her and the dragon.

Though this is met with Alex heaving up the ground into a fist to punch the Sorceress in the face, sending her towards the edge of the arena. He then approached Shina and whispered to her "Ok, I got a plan to end this quickly. I need you to be ready to grab the staff, otherwise we'll lose a Dragon Egg over this."

"Uhhhh…should I worry about protecting the others?"

"No…" Alex shook his head and continued with confidence "I won't be using fire for this." He then dispelled his sword and firmed his stare at the rising Sorceress, whose aura erupted around her body, lashing out like waves in a storm. With a smirk Alex ran at her, trusting Spyro's assistance in his head while the Sorceress slammed the wand down to create another barrier.

All she could do is play defensively at the edge of the arena, but Alex's speed was too fast and with arms coated in metal to stop the electricity he put himself between the sides of the enclosing barrier and let the sparks fly wildly as he slowly began to reach for the Sorceress' face. He had to close his eyes to avoid being blinded while gritting his teeth from the stress of facing this level of magic, but his advance could not be stopped no matter how much the Sorceress put into her efforts.

"Y-You foul human! You won't get away with this!" Those words fell on deaf ears, and the Sorceress' anger would be swiftly replaced with surprise as her wand was swiped from her grasp by a stringy hand of aura. Looking up, she caught a glimpse of Shina vaulting overhead before Alex was able to push forward with one fell thrust and grab the Sorceress' by the mouth. By now though his skin was coated in frost, and he held the witch up while looking at her with eyes burning intensely.

As the squirming Sorceress was slowly frozen over, Alex briefly replaced her presence with that of a green-skinned lanky witch. When his foe was encased entirely in a rugged cage of ice he ripped his arm from the mold and muttered "This'll make up for what I couldn't do before…" as he spun around, mentally throwing the Sorceress' body into the air.

Spyro and Agent 9 didn't even need the prompt to fire their explosive rounds at the Sorceress, the combined destructive force shattering her helpless body into pieces, many of which fell into the lava and burned away to nothing. The rest crumbled onto the floor, including part of her face that Alex casually stamps down into dust while giving it a nearly empty stare. His emotionless state of being was broken away the moment Shina leaped back over with the wand in hand and let out a perturbed murmur.

"Something the matter?" He inquired rather nonchalantly, and Shina's only answer was her own question "Was that REALLY necessary?"

"She was a monster, of course it was. Besides, now we don't have to stick around to fight her again." Alex folded his arms as he made his point as clear as he could, only for Shina to leave him confused with a sigh and a mumble of "T-That's not what I was getting at…"

But she chose to leave the subject alone as she plucked the egg from the wand and then tossed that into the lava. As the egg hatched into one more proud baby dragon, Agent 9 was seen doing a merry jig in the center of the arena.

"Woo-hoo! Yahoo! Kalamazoo! Hi ho ho HO that wicked witch is DEADer than dead! And it's all thanks to yours truly!" The monkey spun around and spanked his knees in a rhythm, looking like an absolute doofus as his allies watched. Spyro's brow raised glare stayed on the monkey until he was near Alex and Shina.

"Well, glad that's over with. Got to say, the Sorceress was no Ripto…" Spyro shook his head a bit then looked up at his allies to say "So hey, I think there's still a few Dragon Eggs out there. We probably should get to finding them."

"Errr, we'd love to Spyro, but now that the Sorceress is done for we'd like to take a look at her archives for Cosmos Drive hints. Hope you understand." Shina said, albeit with some reluctance.

"Well alright. But if you wrap that up, maybe there'll still be something for you to help out with!" The dragon then went to a magic whirlwind in the center of the arena and was carried out of there, leaving Alex and Shina to take care of their task on this world at long last. Once they found Bianca, they asked her for assistance in getting to the archives, and she took them to it with a simple teleportation spell.

The archives were vast, having shelves and shelves of books that towered towards the heavens, all of them neatly ordered by type and alphabet. Beyond that though the only thing to see was the simple stone aesthetic of the walls and the glass dome ceiling. Even the usually stoic Alex gasped in awe as he stared around the room. Shina of course, was grinning from ear to ear.

"All these books…There has to be SOMETHING here!" Before Bianca could say something Shina had already flown off to the higher shelves, forcing the rabbit to speak to Alex.

"Well…I don't know what you'll find, but there's a lot to look through. You're welcome to take your time, not that the Sorceress can stop you now. Seriously, I can't thank you enough for all your help." The boy did not look her in the eyes and simply waved a hand over his shoulder.

"Think nothing of it. Just go help Spyro finish his quest, we'll handle our own business now." That was enough to get the rabbit to teleport out of there, leaving Alex hopefully to the silence of his search. He let out a sigh yet couldn't help but grin as his thoughts wandered _"Finally…These last few hours we're annoying, but if we find even an IOTA of a hint it'll be worth it."_

For sometime after, Alex does what he had never done and buried his face into a bunch of books, scrolling through them for information. Anything that comes up empty is thrown over Alex's shoulder or put gently away by Shina, but she takes some time to cuddle some books against her chest and glide on her back behind Alex while sounding rather cheerful.

"Cookbooks, gardening tips, origami? There's so much stuff here! Man, if only the Sorceress wasn't a mean ol' witch…" Alex closed his eyes and grumbled as he had a finger ready to pull a book out.

"Or she's just a book collector…" He dryly stated "Look, have you found anything on the Cosmos Drive yet?" Shina spun in a crescent to get herself upright, smiling out with the books still held against her chest.

"Nothing yet, but we got a lot of ground to cover!"

"Then get back to work and let me be." Alex's rudeness was replied to with a giggle and a swift departure from Shina, and after Alex sighed he mumbled "I swear I didn't want to be playing librarian today…" as he pulled out the book. Turning it around, he was intrigued by the title.

"Huh…A Tale of Fire and Destruction. This seems more in line with what the Sorceress would like…" Almost entranced, he glided a finger along the centerfold and began to open it until a strange breeze crept through past the hairs on his neck. He then shifted to the left and saw nothing, looking right producing similar results.

"A-Alright…Hope I didn't trigger a trap." Alex slowly looked back at the book with his muscles feeling tense, and that sensation would surely not go away once he saw a note that wasn't there before in the center of the book. His pupils shrunk and he felt his heart rate increasing, yet the mystery of the note allured him so that his hand moved on it's own to pick it up and bring it close to his face, his hand trembling as the paper was crinkled at the bottom.

On the note was text written in a language unfamiliar to him, but to his confusion he could read it perfectly in his mind. It was a poem, but it's contents were quite perplexing.

" _So you thought you could change history?_

 _That's quite the presumption…_

 _Perhaps your arrogance should be paid in blood_

 _Or maybe even that purple dragon's destruction?"_

Instinctively Alex turned the note to ashes and felt a rush in his mind. Everything he saw swirled around in a blur, with the light flushing from his sight slowly but surely. In a raspy tone as his breath palpitated he said "W-What's going on?" he then began to stumble back, ending up right in Shina's arms as she looked at his pale face and inquired concernedly "S-Something the matter Alex?!"

Looking up into Shina's eyes brought relief, but not much, to the boy's mind. There was only one thing he took away from that strange poem as he caught his breath and lifted himself up.

"Spyro's in trouble…I don't know why and I don't know how, but we need to get to him, now!" Alex swung a finger down punctually, and Shina wagged her hands around replying "Alright, alright! He should probably be in the Sorceress' vault getting the rest of the gems!"

"T-That's not far from here, good…Come on, get moving!" Alex flew straight up and punched through the glass ceiling, speeding past the snowy landscapes nearby until he ended up in front of a tower whose door was open. He dashed inside of it and ended up coming across a scene he couldn't have begun to imagine, even in his worst of nightmares.

Spyro was lying on the ground in front of an acid lake, battered and bruised beyond recognizable belief and barely able to stand on his claws. To the left of him were the broiled remains of a hovercraft, and Sparx was barely hanging on as he laid green with a fading light around his body. The culprit was someone who shouldn't have been there, the Sorceress, who was hovering above the center of the acid lake completely renewed.

Worst than that, her appearance had changed. Her scales were now dark violet, with tangled nails growing out of her hands that wrapped wickedly around a molten wand. The aura around her was roaring and pitch black, swallowing her body within the darkness of which only the pale yellow glow in her eyes could breech. Staring at this monstrosity, Alex's heart pumped violently against his chest, hesitating him to draw his blade, and with him in her sights the Sorceress let out a violent sky rending roar…

 _Next Time: Paradox Karma_


	17. Final Chapter

**Final Chapter: The First Step Finale**

Alex was frozen by the suffocating aura of the Sorceress, it's presence making time slow to a crawl. As she prepared to attack, he snapped to attention. Leaping out, he JUST drew his sword in time to slice through it but gets pushed back by the explosion. His body then trips over Spyro and slides until stopped at Shina's feet.

Looking up, Alex saw her glaring out, the color slowly flushed from her face with her arms coddled under her chest and her body trembling slightly. Even so, she tried to grin.

"T-This aura is so…empty. Heh..hehehe…" She sounded a little broken, her laugh making her body jitter, but that stopped the moment Alex blocked her line of sight after he stood up.

"Snap out of it! We need to…" Sensing another energy ball, Alex spun back and sliced through it while bracing himself, and then grit his teeth before continuing "Deal with this problem now! Spyro, can you stand?"

The dragon was stable enough, but his knees were quivering slowly. Like Shina, he forced a grin and looked back at his allies.

"C-Can't say I saw this coming…But I welcome the challenge!" His head lurched down as his front legs gave way a bit as Alex clenched his fists and exclaimed "Idiot! Now's not the time to be cocky!"

Once more the Sorceress tried to annihilate the dragon, yet again Alex zipped forward to defend him, but this time reflected the energy with the blunt side of his blade. The ball smashed the witch's face and sent her tumbling back, giving Alex time to look back firmly over his shoulder and state "Shina, get Spyro to safety! I'll handle this!"

She paused and then affirmed with a nod, kneeling down to pick up and place Sparx on Spyro's back, then lifting the dragon onto her arms as gently as a feather before she turned around and sprinted through the magic portal. Alex then crossed his blade before his face and glared over it at the Sorceress, whose dark aura parted to make her body visible. Seeing not a single trace of scarring on her wickeder form, Alex burned his blade bright with flames.

"Fine…then I'll just atomize you this time." His tone held no emotion, discarding all thoughts of the 'how' or 'why' his foe was back as he leaped forth at them. The Sorceress swung her wand out and released a distorting wave of violet energy across the air, forcing Alex to a halt as his body quivered and he felt himself straining to stay afloat.

" _G-Gravity magic?!"_ He grit his teeth with wide-eyed shock, but before he could take a bath in the acid he coated his feet in ice and froze the pool upon touching the surface. He then looked up to the Sorceress as the gravity increasing threatened to crack the ice, forcing his arm up to summon a cloud above the witch. Before he could snap his fingers for a thunderbolt though, the gravity magic was disrupted by a swift bullet of aura to the Sorceress' forehead, making her head lurch back so much she was looking skyward.

Alex's body took a moment to readjust afterwards but then he immediately looked back. Shina stood holding a sniper rifle in both arms while in Gunslinger mode, and with a frustrated and confused flail of his arms Alex exclaimed "Didn't I say I got this covered?! Worry about Spyro's condition, idiot!"

"Thank you Shina, glad you have my back." Shina said with cheerful sarcasm as she turned the rifle into pistols and holstered them behind her. She then used her scouter on the Sorceress as her head creaked back into place like a rusted hinge, commenting as she did so "Spyro's fine anyways, I healed him up."

"Well good going, now what do we do about this zombie?" Alex tensed his muscles and hopped off the cracking ice, Shina raising her brows and saying as he landed "I wouldn't call her a zombie per say…A ghoul would be more appropriate."

"Semantics! She's undead and a pain in the rear. More importantly, this is DEFINITELY not something Towa and Mira would do. Told you someone else is behind this." Alex took a bit of pride in that, yet as her scouter retracted Shina replied "They aren't dogs, they could learn new tricks if they wanted, buuuuuuuut…" Uncertainty stopped her until Alex looked at her.

"What? What?! Did you notice something?" The boy's impatience came out full force, distracting him long enough for the Sorceress to blast him with an energy ball that blows him through the thick stone housing the portal. Shina however whips her pistols out and zaps the ones that come her way while giving a casual glance back and raising her voice "Well, there is some sort of object buried within the Sorceress that's projecting aura! Maybe that's responsible?"

Alex blows some rubble off with a gale and leaps back down, spitting one stone from his mouth before mentioning "Then we'll just take it out or destroy it. What a pain…" He rubbed the back of his head and let out a bitter grumble, but Shina's usual chuckle got him to stop that instantly. With a shake of his head, he focused on the Sorceress and said "Who knows what type of magic she can use now…So maybe you should go first, Shina."

"I'm glad I can rely on your gentlemanliness, Alex." She replied with aloof sarcasm, but then strolled forward and rapidly fired her pistols at the Sorceress. The aura rippled with each impact and slowly pushed her back with her flinching every shot. The Sorceress swung her wand to deflect the shots with a wide barrier, but was then smashed between the two halves of the frozen pool as Alex clapped his hands together.

Through the crack between the two, darkness poured out and surprised Alex, and he quickly made the glaciers match his claps to repeatedly smash the Sorceress to no avail as her aura eventually spiked through the ice and stretched out to push it all over the sides of the arena. While this thankfully meant no more acid, that would be the least of the duo's problems as the Sorceress held her wand high as she could and began to form a blazing black meteor from nothing.

Every swirl she made caused the meteor to enlarge, the composition made of pure darkness so Alex could not affect it, much to his frustration. Shina plugged her pistols into her holsters and the wires on her wrist filled them with aura, and in a snap she whipped them out one after the other to send two bullets as big as her head at the Sorceress' wand wielding wrist. The first broke her concentration, the second threw the wand right out of her grasp.

The Sorceress turned her head, being met with a shocking kick from Alex that sent her flying after her neck was twisted ninety degrees, and as her body spiraled away the boy flipped around and in a second swung his hands out to blasted the meteor with scorching flames. The pressure only had to built on it for two seconds before it was blanketed with crimson scars and promptly exploded, blowing Alex back towards the bed of the empty pool.

When his body impacted the hard stone, his head lurched and stunned him long enough for the Sorceress to blow up the rock from behind with an explosion strong enough to send Alex tumbling until he was up on the opposite side of the pool. It didn't end there as more explosions went off and sent Alex careening around like a ball, forcing Shina to use her scouter and peer through the bedrock to find the Sorceress launching spells underneath.

Converting the pistols into a rifle, Shina called out "Hold on for a moment Alex!" in good faith towards his durability as she kneeled down and aimed the reticule at the Sorceress' head. Once she had a good charge and Alex was not in the way, she fired a bullet that ripped through the air so fast that the bang rang out long after the Sorceress' head had been pierced through.

No long plagued by the danger of explosions, Alex picked himself up from the middle of the crevice filled pool and cracked his neck for a little, letting out a grumble until he felt the ground shift. A glance showed that the pool was falling down piece by piece, his weight shifting the chunk he was on around and forcing him to leap to it's side to keep it stable as it descended in front of the Sorceress' afloat body.

As he passed, she arose like a zombie from the grave, the smoldering hole in her skull being filled with a spiral of growing flesh. She then lifted her head up and stared upon Alex with a full grin, but as she let out a quiet chuckle his expression went flush with abnormal fright. For a second, all went black, and an image of a person so faint it was almost invisible appeared bathed in a grey ghastly fog as they floated annexed to the Sorceress.

" _You can run, but 'yourself' is the one thing you can never escape…"_

Alex's fright slowly turned into a wide-eyed scowl as his heart began racing again, culminating in him letting out a frustrated yell and throwing a large chunk of rock at the Sorceress with a hand thrust. The Sorceress warped behind Alex and used gravity magic to throw him against that same rock, forcing his arms and legs back in an arch so forcibly that the bones could be heard cracking while he twisted his head back and forth and grunted in resistance.

Leaping from the stable ledge, Shina dropped to one of the curved rocks and slid down, holding the rifle to her chest as she turned it into a grenade launcher. Lobbing a grenade straight up as her body left the rock, Shina floated and then spun herself so she could kick the grenade into the Sorceress' skull, blowing her away with a darkness parting burst of white aura. She then landed on the rock in front of Alex as he freed himself and shook the pain from his limbs.

"We're not getting anywhere, but…I may have an idea."

"You throw something sharp at her that I can infuse with aura so we can cut through that darkness around her, then when her body's opened up I can pull the object out?" Shina quickly ironed out a plan while switching back to her pistols, giving a smile back to a flabbergasted Alex when she was done.

"I-I was going to say just give me time to disintegrate her in one attack, but I guess we cooould investigate the object." He was blushing a little as he threw a gesture at Shina, who snapped a pistol out to blast through an energy ball coming her way. The descent of the rocks picked up speed and Shina leaped up to take cover on one of the large rocks, switching to a weapon with a 'liquid' vial attached to a long round tube.

Meanwhile, Alex looked up at her and with a raise of his brows realized what she was up to. Swinging his hand around, he turned some of the stone into reflective glass, moving them until Shina gave a thumbs up from over the edge. By the time Alex swung his hand back and started forming a metal saw blade from nothing, the Sorceress burst through some rocks and floated in front of Alex, letting out a roar as she threw her wand out to hit him with a burst of gravity.

With his feet braced against the rock, he was able to fight against the magic long enough for Shina to fire a glob of aura that ricochets off the mirrors until it latches itself around Alex's saw and allows him to throw it with an arched swing of his arm. Gravity pushes the saw back, yet all Alex has to do is concentrate and it boomerangs over the magic and dives straight down, slicing the Sorceress' body in half.

Web-like strands of flesh held things together barely, but stuck in the center of the body was some sort of strange curved artifact. Alex only caught a glimpse of that until a claw and rope made of aura latched onto it, and his eyes diverted to Shina gliding upside-down through the air with a smile on her face.

"Sorry, but we have no vacancy for zombies, demons, or ghouls here! So YER outta here!" Then with a tug of her grapple gun she wrenched the artifact from the Sorceress' body, immediately producing results as the Sorceress' body began to bulge and spasm across the skin. Her scales bubbled and popped, destroying her body down to the atom with decently sized explosions, and all the monster could do is let out continuous roars until nothing remained and a vast burst of darkness spread out and then collapsed upon itself like a suffocating vacuum.

The instant the Sorceress was gone, Alex almost couldn't believe how quiet everything suddenly was. All he heard were the whispers of wind and the sound of Shina landing beside him, the artifact grasped in hand as she turned back to normal. With a nonchalant smile she looked down at it while Alex folded his arms and said "Lets get back up, I'd hate to see how long this goes for."

"Oh, right!" Shina said with an oblivious look on her face, causing Alex to raise a brow curiously before they took off and went back to whatever remained of the pool, ending up on the ledge near the portal. Shina lifted the artifact up in front of her face, letting out a gasp of discovery while slapping a cheek.

"Hey, I recognize this!" That was not something Alex expected to hear and he quickly swerved around, Shina lowering her hand so he could take a look at the artifact. The stone was as thick as his arm and had an evened out curve on the inside and outside. There were two segments carved into the stone, one having grey text and the other having green. Though he couldn't read the text, this time his mind didn't suddenly piece it together, eliciting confusion.

"Uhhh…I don't get it." He was hesitant to admit, but Shina brought the artifact against her chest and after a chuckle admitted "O-Oh right…You wouldn't know our history." Her eyes then lit up and she thrust the stone into Alex's grasp, and once it's freed from hers she raised a finger beside her head and put glasses of aura before her eyes.

"Well! The text on the stone basically translates to 'Naturia of the Gentle Blossom' and 'Galis of the Humbling Winds'. Those two were part of the Ten Sages from the time my mom was born!" The history lesson did not interest Alex as he immediately pondered "What's an Aurian artifact doing here? More importantly…Why was it inside the Sorceress?" He lifted his head up but was met with a shrug.

"Beats me!" The chipper response was expected, but not what came after as Shina held her chin and vocalized her thoughts "But I mean, if this was created in the Ten Sages' time, then that'd be when the Grand Cosmic Aurian Sage was alive too…Which can only meeeeaaaaan…" She left her mouth agape until Alex pointed a finger at her bluntly.

"Look, you shouldn't be subscribing to coincidences here! In fact, considering what happened to the Sorceress, I'm hesitant to even keep HOLDING this thing!" Alex glared at the rock for a short period while Shina placed arms behind her back and said "I wouldn't worry about it, whatever happened to the Sorceress shouldn't repeat with us. In fact, I can see an entirely different aura pouring out from the stone!"

Her eyes closed and from the stone rose a cloudy stream of aquamarine aura that went out towards space, with Shina having to tap the stone to make the trail materialize for Alex. He held his head up high and muttered "W-What the…?" Shina then giggled and glided her finger towards the sides of the artifact, where a gear tooth and a slot for one were on each side respectively.

"See? This is meant to be put together with some other stones! The aura from it must be a hint to their locations!" Alex turned the stone and rubbed the back of his head before muttering "So this is some sort of map plus key? …Huh." He turned around and looked over the stone some more, then threw it over his shoulder for Shina to have.

"There's no proof this is related to the Cosmos Drive." He said pessimistically, which was contrasted by Shina's cheeriness "Then why is this even here? History said the Ten Sages and the Grand Cosmic Aurian Sage had a connection, so why couldn't this be related to the Cosmos Drive that HE made?" Alex grumbled a little, as Shina smiled behind him.

"I mean…There's no definitive proof, but there's plenty of coincidences adding up that make this our best bet. Don't tell me you can't see that, Alex." There was a tense pause as Alex tapped his foot and scowled, until soon he just gave up on pointless arguing.

"So we're going on some galaxy wide fetch quest. Well, I guess we got some experience here then." He said, albeit with some irritation, as he could only make that sound so simple. With his arms against his chest Shina trotted before him, looking a little smugly over her shoulder. He raised his brows and asked "What's on your mind now?"

"Come on Alex…Might as well pop that pepper in now and get it over with!" She turned around and giggled, Alex widening his eyes and realizing _"Oh shoot, I did say that I would do that didn't I?! …Well, this is what I get for thinking coincidence would be beaten by common sense. Idiot…"_

He let out a gulp and then closed his eyes, holding an open palm beside his face as created the hottest pepper he could think of. It was crumpled, red, and wrinklier than a raisin. Slowly moving it towards his mouth, he peeks out to see Shina with fists pumped and an excited smile, and with body already sweating he muttered "You're despicable, Shina Aurora." He then chomped down on the ghost pepper all at once, wanting to just get this over with.

At first it was fine as the pepper was chewed and swallowed. He stood there with eyes closed, but then a burning tinge touched his tongue and spread out across the buds. His face turned red swiftly, and he quickly collapsed onto his knees as his body was gnawed at by the fangs of spiciness the pepper had. Consumed by the pepper's power, Alex wrenched his head up and shot literal flames from his mouth while he gripped his stomach tightly. Shina watched on but didn't enjoy a second of it, yet she could only offer one word of advice.

"Water Alex! Give yourself water!" She swung her fists urgently, but thankfully Alex was not so consumed that he was devoid of hearing and quickly smashed his palm against his open mouth and flooded his esophagus with water to calm the heat. He could handle this only for a few seconds, then the water splashed out onto his pants. At last though, he was freed from the tyranny of the ghost pepper. His eyes were watering, but he was able to look up at Shina with a face as red as the pepper while panting heavily.

"Oh my gosh Alex I'm so, so, so, SO sorry!" Shina bent down and patted Alex's pants to try and dry them off, but he had already warmed his body to do the deed and she slowly backs off with an awkward grin on her face. To Alex's relief at least her apology was genuine, and he could not hold any anger when she smiled like that.

"I-I've never been able to handle spicy food, so now you know." Alex quickly said, with Shina mentioning "I honestly thought, you know, that being an Elemental Overlord would leave you unaffected by peppers."

"Spiciness and flames are two different things entirely…" Alex explained, the last iotas of pain leaving his body and allowing him the energy to stand.

"Look, it's…whatever. Speaking of flames though, we should probably check up on Spyro before we go." Shina then smiled and bounced back onto her feet, lamenting with a sigh "Yeah, we do have to leave the planet. We got what we came for, now we can continue on! Maybe someday I can come back here with sis and show her a good time." The thought got her holding her cheeks and blushing, but Alex just walked past her towards the portal. After picking the stone up, she caught up to him.

Outside the tower the portal was attached to, a rejuvenated Spyro and Sparx waited for them. With his usual attitude he said "Took you guys long enough" yet followed with a genuine "I was worried you weren't going to make it."

"Nah, we're fine! And we can assure you, the Sorceress is double dead this time!" Shina said in a chipper tone, and Spyro grinned before replying "Well that's a relief. Won't have to worry about seeing her ugly face again, huh Sparx?" The dragonfly buzzed merrily, then Spyro widened his eyes and looked to the duo.

"Oh yeah! While you were fighting the Sorceress, the last Dragon Egg we were looking for popped out of the sky. It had twins in it too!" Shina's eyes lit up with joy upon hearing that.

"That's wonderful! …So wait, that means you've gotten everything taken care of, right?" Her answer came in the form of a nod from Spyro, but he went further with "151 Dragon Eggs, 20,000 Gems. Got everything we needed back from the Sorceress. Even gave 'ol Moneybags the run around after he tried to sell an Egg for profit."

"See? Got to pay him back after all! Anyways, I hate to tell ya this Spyro, but we're going to have to leave now." Spyro raised his brows and asked "Do you have to? You're welcome to stick around for a bit." Shina shook her head right away, much to Alex's surprise.

"It was fun being here Spyro, and I'm glad we helped you out…But if I have to be honest, we were just passing time until we could find some info for the Cosmos Drive, and now that we got it…"

"You got your priorities. Well, alright, I get that. But hey, you're always welcome back at the Dragon Realms, so if you're ever in the neighborhood again drop on by!" Spyro smiled and Shina nodded her head, not needing to say anymore than that. The purple dragon turned around and with a glance to his friend said with a sigh "Come on Sparx…We got a lot of baby dragons to deal with back home."

As he moved out of sight, Shina waved her hand and exclaimed "It was nice meeting you two! Say goodbye to everyone we met for us!" The dragon gave a smirk back and then walked behind a mountain. After a lingering calmness, Shina sighed and then glanced at Alex, who was already working on creating an air bubble for them to travel in space with.

"You didn't want to say goodbye?"

"I think I've done that enough with parts of my childhood, thank you very much. Lets just get a move on…Who knows how long it'll take to get to the next planet." He then began lift-off as Shina held the stone up and used her aura to summon forth the winding trail connected to it. She then sat down and stretched her arms up after dropping the stone, letting out a tired grunt.

"That battle took more outta me than I thought…Hey Alex, maybe you can use your powers to let me take a shower once we're off world?" The suddenness of that request caught the stoic Alex in a bind, his eyes widening as he slowly looked at Shina, who had said that with a completely straight face. The floodgates in his veins broke and blood rushed through his boy, leaving his face beet red even as Shina looked at him, seemingly unaware of what her request entailed.

As his heart pumped, Alex grit his teeth and thought _"T-Tsk…You're more trouble than your happiness is worth to me, Shina Aurora…"_ But this matter would have to be something the boy would deal with once he got away from this planet. The air bubble went past the atmosphere, and back to the depths of space the two went. As the Spyro world became a speck in their wake, they followed the trail of aura to their next destination, and hopefully one step closer to finding the Cosmos Drive…

" _Thus ends the first tale, I suppose…"_

" _Though from your perspective, my friend, first would take on an entirely different meaning."_

" _You had your fun testing those two, didn't you? Even a blind man could see your smile."_

" _Hohoho, humored by that are you? Still, my point stands. One world down, five to go for those two. I suppose I won't be seeing you again until a few months have passed, though for those outside our purview time will pass much quicker."_

"… _And yet again, you are gone. Even after all these years, I will never get used to that."_

"… _Your journey has just begun, fair Alex, fairer Shina…Shall you survive the trials my friend has set out for you? …Then again, it's not a matter of 'shall' but rather 'when'. Let us awaken your true destinies, children of Destruction."_

 **CLASH OF THE ELEMENTS PART 4 EX STORY 1**

 **THE END!**

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

I'd like to apologize right now for how this story ended up. A lot of things didn't go according to plan and I ended up rushing the conclusion because of it. Normally this wouldn't bother me but like...I need to be doing better with these stories. As such, I'm going to take a break between this and the Crash Bandicoot story to rework the way I handle writing. You can see me in a couple weeks more than likely on the Crash Bandicoot side of things, so...sorry again for how this ended up.


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